Abstract:
Spectral aerosol optical depth (AOD) measurements, carried out regularly from a network of observatories spread over the Indian mainland and adjoining islands in the Bay of Bengal and Arabian
Sea, are used to examine the spatio-temporal and spectral variations during the period of ICARB
(March to May 2006). The AODs and the derived Ångström parameters showed considerable variations across India during the above period. While at the southern peninsular stations the AODs
decreased towards May after a peak in April, in the north Indian regions they increased continuously from March to May. The Ångström coefficients suggested enhanced coarse mode loading in the
north Indian regions, compared to southern India. Nevertheless, as months progressed from March
to May, the dominance of coarse mode aerosols increased in the columnar aerosol size spectrum
over the entire Indian mainland, maintaining the regional distinctiveness. Compared to the above,
the island stations showed considerably low AODs, so too the northeastern station Dibrugarh, indicating the prevalence of cleaner environment. Long-range transport of aerosols from the adjoining
regions leads to remarkable changes in the magnitude of the AODs and their wavelength dependencies during March to May. HYSPLIT back-trajectory analysis shows that enhanced long-range
transport of aerosols, particularly from the west Asia and northwest coastal India, contributed
significantly to the enhancement of AOD and in the flattening of the spectra over entire regions; if
it is the peninsular regions and the island Minicoy are more impacted in April, the north Indian
regions including the Indo Gangetic Plain get affected the most during May, with the AODs soaring as high as 1.0 at 500 nm. Over the islands, the Ångström exponent (α) remained significantly
lower (∼1) over the Arabian Sea compared to Bay of Bengal (BoB) (∼1.4) as revealed by the data
respectively from Minicoy and Port Blair. Occurrences of higher values of α, showing dominance of
accumulation mode aerosols, over BoB are associated well with the advection, above the boundary
layer, of fine particles from the east Asian region during March and April. The change in the airmass
to marine in May results in a rapid decrease in α over the BoB.
