Abstract
Realizing the importance of aerosol physical properties at the adjoining continental and coastal locations in the airmass pathways onto the oceanic region, extensive measurements of aerosol physical properties were made at Visakhapatnam (17.7°N, 83.3°E), an eastern coastal location in peninsular India during the ICARB period. The temporal variations of aerosol optical depth, near surface aerosol mass size distributions and BC mass concentrations show significantly higher aerosol optical depth and near surface mass concentrations during the first and last weeks of April 2007. The mean BC mass fraction in the fine mode aerosol was around 11%. The aerosol back scatter profiles derived from Micro Pulse Lidar indicate a clear airmass subsidence on the days with higher aerosol optical depths and near surface mass fraction. A comparison of the temporal variation of the aerosol properties at Visakhapatnam with the MODIS derived aerosol optical depth along the cruise locations indicates a resemblance in the temporal variation suggesting that the aerosol transport from the eastern coastal regions of peninsular India could significantly affect the aerosol optical properties at the near coastal oceanic regions and that the affect significantly reduced at the farther regions.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Ganguly D, Jayaraman A and Gadhavi H 2005 In situ ship cruise measurements of mass concentration and size distribution of aerosols over Bay of Bengal and their radiative impacts; J. Geophys. Res. 110 D06205, doi:10.1029/2004JD005325.
Krishnamurti T N, Jha B, Prospero J, Jayaraman A and Ramanathan V 1998 Aerosol and pollutant transport and their impact on radiative forcing over the tropical Indian Ocean during the January-February 1996 pre-INDOEX cruise; Tellus 50B 521–542.
Moorthy K K and Babu S S 2006 Aerosol black carbon over Bay of Bengal observed from an island location, Port Blair: Temporal features and long-range transport; J. Geophys. Res. 111 D17205, doi:10.1029/2005JD006855.
Niranjan K, Sreekanth V, Madhavan B L and Krishna Moorthy K 2006 Wintertime aerosol characteristics at a north Indian site Kharagpur in the Indo-Gangetic plains located at the outflow region into Bay of Bengal; J. Geophys. Res. 111 D24209, doi:10.1029/2006JD007635.
Niranjan K, Madhavan B L and Sreekanth V 2007 Micro pulse lidar observation of high altitude aerosol layers at Visakhapatnam located on the east coast of India; Geophys. Res. Lett. 34 L03815, doi:10.1029/2006GL028199.
Parameswaran K, Rajeev K and Sen Gupta K 1997 An observational study of night time aerosol concentrations in the lower atmosphere at a tropical coastal station; J. Atmos. Sol. Terr. Phys. 59(14) 1727–1737.
Ramachandran S and Jayaraman A 2003 Spectral aerosol optical depths over Bay of Bengal and Chennai: I — measurements; Atmos. Environ. 37 1941–1949.
Satheesh S K and Krishna Moorthy K 1997 Aerosol characteristics over coastal regions of the Arabian Sea; Tellus 49B 417–428.
Satheesh S K, Srinivasan J and Moorthy K K 2006 Spatial and temporal heterogeneity in aerosol properties and radiative forcing over Bay of Bengal: Sources and role of aerosol transport; J. Geophys. Res. 111 D08202, doi:10.1029/2005JD006374.
Smirnov A, Holben B N, Kaufman Y J, Dubovik O, Eck T F, Slutsker I, Pietras C and Halthore R N 2002 Optical properties of atmospheric aerosol in maritime environments; J. Atmos. Sci. 59 501–523.
Sreekanth V, Niranjan K and Madhavan B L 2007 Radiative forcing of black carbon over eastern India; Geophys. Res. Lett. 34 L17818, doi:10.1029/2007GL030377.
Villevalde Y V, Smirnov A V, O’Neill N T, Smyshlyaev S P and Yakovlev V V 1994 Measurement of aerosol optical depth in the Pacific Ocean and the North Atlantic; J. Geophys. Res. 99(D10) 20,983–20,988.
Vinoj V, Babu S S, Satheesh S K, Moorthy K K and Kaufman Y J 2004 Radiative forcing by aerosols over the Bay of Bengal region derived from shipborne, island-based, and satellite (Moderate-Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer) observations; J. Geophys. Res. 109 D05203, doi:10.1029/2003JD004329.
Volgin V M, Yershov O A, Smirnov A V and Shifrin K 1988 Optical depth of aerosol in typical sea areas; Izv. Acad. Sci. USSR Atmos. Oceanic Phys., Engl. Transl., 24 772–777.
Yershov O A, Smirnov A V and Shifrin K S 1990 Spectral transperancy and solar halo in the atmosphere above the ocean; Izv. Acad. Sci. USSR Atmos. Oceanic Phys., Engl. Transl., 26 287–292.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Niranjan, K., Sreekanth, V., Madhavan, B.L. et al. Temporal characteristics of aerosol physical properties at Visakhapatnam on the east coast of India during ICARB — Signatures of transport onto Bay of Bengal. J Earth Syst Sci 117 (Suppl 1), 421–427 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12040-008-0018-x
Received:
Revised:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12040-008-0018-x