Chapter 8 - Identification of different aerosol types over a semi-arid location in southern peninsular India retrieved from the CALIPSO

Abstract

This chapter presents seasonal variations of different aerosol subtypes observed at Anantapur in southern peninsular India. The study utilizes the data obtained from the Cloud-Aerosol Lidar and Infrared Pathfinder Satellite Observations (CALIPSO) satellite during December 2008–November 2018. The intra-seasonal mean (±σ) columnar aerosol optical depth (AOD) was found to be 0.31 ± 0.1, 0.43 ± 0.1, 0.20 ± 0.04, and 0.25 ± 0.06 during winter, summer, monsoon, and postmonsoon, respectively. The results revealed that the dominant aerosol subtypes in winter was polluted continental (63.6%), whereas the polluted dust aerosol (69%) was found dominant in summer. Furthermore, the polluted continental and polluted dust was the dominant aerosol subtype during the postmonsoon, with frequencies of about 37.8% and 44.7%, respectively. These findings can be fairly consistent with the air mass cluster analysis computed for the obtained backward trajectories derived from the Hybrid Single-Particle Lagrangian Integrated Trajectory (HYSPLIT) model. Further, the aerosol vertical extinction coefficient measured at 532 nm was found larger at lower altitudes of <2 km (higher >2 km) during the winter and postmonsoon (summer and monsoon) seasons.