Is the atmospheric boundary layer altitude or the strong thermal inversions that control the vertical extent of aerosols?

Abstract

It is well known that the atmospheric boundary layer (ABL) plays a significant role in controlling the variability of atmospheric constituents such as aerosols and trace-gases. Hence, significant diurnal and seasonal variation in these will be observed as the ABL altitude does. However, on several occasions, high aerosol concentration in the lidar measurements is observed even above the ABL altitude. This raised a question that up to what extent ABL altitude acts as a capping layer for these pollutants? From the detailed analysis carried out using long-term (2010–2018) lidar observations and simultaneous radiosonde profiles obtained from Gadanki, India, we show that ‘there exist thermal inversions (TI), which are stronger than the ABL inversions, that fully control the vertical extent’. The detailed characteristics of TI (inversion strength (IS) and inversion depth (ID)) are also obtained. The results revealed that aerosol concentrations below the TI altitude increases with IS (ID) up to 3–4 K (300–400 m) during winter whereas in pre-monsoon it increases up to 2–3 K (100–200 m). Thus, IS of up to 2–4 K is required to fully trap the aerosol concentrations and this TI coincide with the ABL inversions for 51.7% only, particularly during the winter and pre-monsoon seasons. This analysis is further extended to different geographical locations of India using the aerosol profiles obtained from CALIPSO and a network of 23 radiosonde stations. The observed results provided further evidence that the vertical distribution of aerosols is restricted to the maximum extent by the TI but not the ABL altitude. These observations lead us to propose a hypothesis that ‘trapping of aerosols fully occurs up to particular IS and ID only and the ABL altitude is not the deciding factor most of the time for capping the aerosol vertical distribution’. These findings will greatly help in modeling the diffusion and transport of air pollutants in the lower troposphere.