The climatology of aerosol optical thickness and radiative effects in Southeast Asia from 18-years of ground-based observations

Rehana Khan; Kanike Raghavendra Kumar; Tianliang Zhao

doi:10.1016/j.envpol.2019.113025

The climatology of aerosol optical thickness and radiative effects in Southeast Asia from 18-years of ground-based observations

Environ Pollut. 2019 Nov;254(Pt A):113025. doi: 10.1016/j.envpol.2019.113025. Epub 2019 Aug 7.

Authors

Rehana Khan¹, Kanike Raghavendra Kumar², Tianliang Zhao³

Affiliations

¹ Collaborative Innovation Centre on Forecast and Evaluation of Meteorological Disasters, Key Laboratory of Meteorological Disaster, Ministry of Education (KLME), International Joint Laboratory on Climate and Environment Change (ILCEC), Key Laboratory for Aerosol-Cloud-Precipitation of China Meteorological Administration, School of Atmospheric Physics, Nanjing University of Information Science and Technology, Nanjing 210044, Jiangsu, China; Department of Physics, Higher Education, Government of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Peshawar, 25000, Pakistan.
² Collaborative Innovation Centre on Forecast and Evaluation of Meteorological Disasters, Key Laboratory of Meteorological Disaster, Ministry of Education (KLME), International Joint Laboratory on Climate and Environment Change (ILCEC), Key Laboratory for Aerosol-Cloud-Precipitation of China Meteorological Administration, School of Atmospheric Physics, Nanjing University of Information Science and Technology, Nanjing 210044, Jiangsu, China; Department of Physics, School of Sciences and Humanities, Green Fields Campus, K. L. University, Vaddeswaram 522502, Guntur, Andhra Pradesh, India. Electronic address: kanike.kumar@gmail.com.
³ Collaborative Innovation Centre on Forecast and Evaluation of Meteorological Disasters, Key Laboratory of Meteorological Disaster, Ministry of Education (KLME), International Joint Laboratory on Climate and Environment Change (ILCEC), Key Laboratory for Aerosol-Cloud-Precipitation of China Meteorological Administration, School of Atmospheric Physics, Nanjing University of Information Science and Technology, Nanjing 210044, Jiangsu, China. Electronic address: tlzhao@nuist.edu.cn.

PMID: 31419660
DOI: 10.1016/j.envpol.2019.113025

Abstract

The present study utilizes 18 years of long-term (2001-2018) data collected from six active AERONET sites over the Indo-Gangetic Plain (IGP) and the North China Plain (NCP) areas in Southeast Asia. The annual mean (±SD) aerosol optical thickness at 440 nm (AOT₄₄₀) was found high at XiangHe (0.92 ± 0.69) and Taihu (0.90 ± 0.51) followed by Beijing (0.81 ± 0.69), Lahore (0.81 ± 0.43), and Kanpur (0.73 ± 0.35) and low at Karachi (0.52 ± 0.23). Seasonally, high AOT₄₄₀ with corresponding high Ångström exponent (ANG_440-870) noticed during JJA for all sites, except Kanpur, suggesting the dominance of fine-mode particles, generally associated with large anthropogenic emissions. Climatologically, an increasing (decreasing) trend was observed over IGP (NCP) sites, with the highest (lowest) percentage of departures in AOT₄₄₀ found over Beijing (Karachi). We further identified major aerosol types which showed the dominance of biomass burning, urban-industrial followed by the mixed type of aerosols. In addition, single scattering albedo (SSA), asymmetry parameter (ASP), volume size distribution (VSD), and complex aerosol refractive index (RI) showed significant temporal and spectral changes, illustrating the complexity of aerosol types. At last, the annual mean direct aerosol radiative forcing at the top, bottom, and within the atmosphere for all sites were found in the range from -17.36 ± 3.75 to -45.17 ± 4.87 W m^-2, -64.6 ± 4.86 to -93.7 ± 10.27 W m^-2, and 40.5 ± 6.43 to 68.25 ± 7.26 W m^-2, respectively, with an averaged atmospheric heating rate of 0.9-2.3 K day^-1. A large amount of anthropogenic aerosols showed a significant effect of heating (cooling) on the atmosphere (surface) results obviously, due to an increased rate of atmospheric heating. Therefore, the thermodynamic effects of anthropogenic aerosols on the atmospheric circulation and its structure should be taken into consideration for future study over the experimental sites.

Keywords: AERONET; Aerosol optical depth; Radiative forcing; Single scattering albedo; Southeast Asia.

MeSH terms

Aerosols / analysis*
Air Pollutants / analysis*
Asia, Southeastern
Atmosphere / chemistry
Beijing
Biomass
China
Environmental Monitoring / methods*
Meteorology

Substances

Aerosols
Air Pollutants