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Assessment of aerosol optical and micro-physical features retrieved from direct and diffuse solar irradiance measurements from Skyradiometer at a high altitude station at Merak

Assessment of aerosol optical features from Merak

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Abstract

Optical and micro-physical features of aerosol are reported using Skyradiometer (POM-01L, Prede, Japan) observations taken from a high-altitude station Merak, located in north-eastern Ladakh of the western trans-Himalayas region during January 2011 to December 2013. The observed daily mean aerosol optical depth (AOD, at 500 nm) at the site varied from 0.01 to 0.14. However, 75 % of the observed AOD lies below 0.05 during the study period. Seasonal peaks of AOD occurred in spring as 0.06 and minimum in winter as 0.03 which represents the aged background aerosols at the site. Yearly mean AOD at 500 nm is found to be around 0.04 and inter-annual variations of AOD is very small (nearly ±0.01). Angstrom exponent (a) varied seasonally from 0.73 in spring to 1.5 in autumn. About 30 % of the observed a lies below 0.8 which are the indicative for the presence of coarse-mode aerosols at the site. The station exhibits absorbing aerosol features which prominently occurred during spring and that may be attributed by the transported anthropogenic aerosol from Indo-Gangatic Plain (IGP). Results were well substantiated with the air mass back-trajectory analysis. Furthermore, seasonal mean of single scattering albedo (SSA at 500 nm) varied from of 0.94 to 0.98 and a general increasing trend is noticed from 400 to 870 nm wavelengths. These features are apparently regional characteristics of the site. Aerosol asymmetry factor (AS) decreases gradually from 400 to 870 nm and varied from 0.66 to 0.69 at 500 nm across the seasons. Dominance of desert-dust aerosols, associated by coarse mode, is indicated by tri-modal features of aerosol volume size distribution over the station during the entire seasons.

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Acknowledgment

The authors would like to thank the Director (IIA) for his support and encouragement. Furthermore, the authors are very grateful to the entire staff of the Indian Astronomical Observatory (IAO)-Hanle and Merak stations for their invaluable assistance during the observations. One of the authors A. K. Srivastava would like to thank Director, IITM for his encouragements and supports. The Skyradiometer data were analyzed using the Skyrad.pack software, version 4.2 and the authors thank Prof. T. Nakajima for providing the code. The authors gratefully acknowledge the NOAA Air Resources Laboratory (ARL) for providing airmass trajectory calculations (http://www.ready.noaa.gov). Finally, the authors are thankful to the anonymous reviewers for their constructive comments and suggestions to improve the manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Indian Institute of Astrophysics, 2nd Block Koramangala, Bangalore, 560034, India

    Shantikumar S. Ningombam & S. P. Bagare

  2. Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology, (New Delhi Branch) Prof. Ram Nath Vij Marg, New Delhi, 110060, India

    A. K. Srivastava

  3. Formerly with Indian Institute of Astrophysics, 2nd Block Koramangala, Bangalore, 560034, India

    R. B. Singh

  4. Department of Physical Geography and Ecosystem Science, Lund University, 223 62, Lund, Sweden

    V. P. Kanawade

  5. Indian Astronomical Observatory (IIA) Hanle, Ladakh, India

    Namgyal Dorjey

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  1. Shantikumar S. Ningombam
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  2. A. K. Srivastava
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  3. S. P. Bagare
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  4. R. B. Singh
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  5. V. P. Kanawade
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  6. Namgyal Dorjey
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Correspondence to Shantikumar S. Ningombam.

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Ningombam, S.S., Srivastava, A.K., Bagare, S.P. et al. Assessment of aerosol optical and micro-physical features retrieved from direct and diffuse solar irradiance measurements from Skyradiometer at a high altitude station at Merak. Environ Sci Pollut Res 22, 16610–16619 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-015-4788-9

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