Radiative characteristics of fog over the Indo-Gangetic Plains during northern winter

Abstract

The Indo-Gangetic plains (IGP), spread across northern parts of India, Pakistan and Bangladesh is a hot-spot for fog formation during northern winter. The unavailability of long-term fog data over the IGP from any space based platform incites the utilization of monthly International Satellite Cloud Climatology Project (ISCCP-D2) cloud data for studying fog at this region. Fog is primarily represented as low level stratus and stratocumulus clouds in ISCCP cloud data. Top of atmosphere cloud radiative forcing measured by Clouds and the Earth’s Radiant Energy System instruments onboard Aqua/Terra satellites indicates a net radiative cooling by fog over the IGP region. Also, the analysis of gridded surface temperature data from India meteorological department suggests that negative temperature anomalies prevail over the regions of radiative cooling exerted by fog. These negative anomalies in surface temperature may cause further dipping of the temperature over the IGP during fog years. This study suggests that foggy winter will be colder than non-foggy winter over the IGP.