Impact of aerosols and cloud parameters on Indian summer monsoon rain at intraseasonal scale: a diagnostic study

Abstract

Aerosol and cloud parameters are known to be the influencing factors of the Indian summer monsoon rainfall (ISMR) variability at interannual and intraseasonal scales. In this study, we investigate the impact of remotely sensed aerosol optical depth and associated parameters (cloud fraction, cloud optical depth, cloud effective radii, cloud top pressure, and single-scattering albedo) on the individual active (break) spells of the Indian summer monsoon (ISM) season. Active and break spells are identified using satellite-derived data sets over the central Indian (CI) region. The present analysis suggests that the CI region is loaded with higher aerosol concentration and that rainfall is significantly negatively correlated with aerosol optical depth (significant at 1 % significance level) over CI. Contrary to the composite-based previous studies, it has been observed that the aerosol loading and cloud properties are considerably different during the individual active and break events. For break events, composite representation shows that aerosols are stacked along the Himalayan region while all individual break events do not portray this type of aerosol dispensation. It appears from the present analysis that the aerosols may impact the intraseasonal variability of ISMR through its indirect effect by altering the cloud properties and consequently the rainfall. Therefore, aerosols are supposed to be a regional contributor in affecting the intraseasonal variability of summer monsoon rainfall.