Seasonal variability in aerosol, CCN and their relationship observed at a high altitude site in Western Ghats

Abstract

Atmospheric aerosols which serve as cloud condensation nuclei (CCN) are key elements of the hydrological cycle and climate. In the present work, aerosol–CCN variability and their relationship have been studied for the first time at Mahabaleshwar, a high altitude (1348 m AMSL) site in Western Ghats, using one year (June 2012–May 2013) of observations. Present study has been done in two sections in which first temporal variability (diurnal and seasonal) of aerosol and CCN has been analyzed. Later CCN to aerosol ratio and other microphysical properties have been investigated along with detail discussion on possible sources of aerosol. First part, i.e., diurnal variation in aerosol and CCN concentration has shown relatively higher values during early morning hours in monsoon season whereas in winter and pre-monsoon it was higher in the evening hours. Seasonal mean variation in aerosol and CCN (SS above 0.6 %) has shown higher (less) in monsoon (winter) season. Temporal variation reveals dominance of fine-mode aerosol during monsoon season over the study region. In the second part temporal variation of activation ratio, k value (exponent of CCN super-saturation spectra) and geometric mean aerosol diameter have been analyzed. Variation of activation ratio showed the ratio is higher in monsoon especially for SS 0.6–1 %. The analysis also showed high k value during monsoon season as compared to other seasons (pre-monsoon and winter) which may be due to dominance of hygroscopic aerosols in the maritime air masses from Arabian Sea and biogenic aerosol emissions from the wet forest. Analyzed mean aerosol diameter is much smaller during monsoon season with less variability compared to other seasons. Overall analysis showed that aerosol and CCN concentration was higher over this high altitude site despite of dominant sink processes such as cloud scavenging and washout mechanisms indicating local emissions and biogenic Volatile Organic Compounds (BVOC) emissions from wet forest as major sources.