Publications

Kumar, S; Singh, A; Srivastava, AK; Sahu, SK; Hooda, RK; Dumka, UC; Pathak, V (2021). Long-term change in aerosol characteristics over Indo-Gangetic Basin: How significant is the impact of emerging anthropogenic activities?. URBAN CLIMATE, 38, 100880.

Abstract
Long-term aerosol characteristics were assessed over the Indo-Gangetic Basin (IGB) using satellite-derived aerosol properties from January 2007 to December 2017. The study shows steadily high aerosol optical depth (AOD -0.7) with a decadal increasing trend (-20%) over the IGB. Angstrom exponent (AE) shows a relatively large increasing trend at Lucknow in the central IGB (-25%) as compared to Delhi in the north-west IGB (-18%), which suggests relative increase in fine-mode aerosols at Lucknow (-30%). Though, single scattering albedo (SSA) does not show any considerable decadal trend at both the stations, the ultraviolet-aerosol index (UV-AI) shows an increasing trend, with a pronounced increase at Delhi (-26%) compared to Lucknow (-20%). Result suggests relative dominance of absorbing dust aerosols over Delhi. Further, to understand the impact of emerging activities, analyses were done in two sub-periods: 2007-2012 and 2013-2017. Interestingly, a relative increasing trend in AOD (-31%) is observed at Delhi compared to Lucknow during 2007-2012, which was observed at Lucknow (-22%) during 2013-2017. The emission inventory corroborates with the trend and variability of optical properties for different sub-periods, and results show intense development activities in the region have an influence on vertical as well as horizontal aerosol load.

DOI:
10.1016/j.uclim.2021.100880

ISSN:
2212-0955