Spatio-temporal distribution of rainfall and aerosols over urban areas of Karnataka

Abstract

Rapid increase of population and urban sprawl have an immense impact on local climatic conditions. Urban heat island, increased surface roughness and enhanced aerosol are some of the prominent factors affecting precipitation in such highly populated urban areas. Among these, the complex interaction of aerosol particles with solar radiation have acknowledged their importance in radiation budget and hence climate dynamics. Being cloud condensation nuclei they also influence cloud lifetime and microphysics in turn influencing precipitation. Present investigation emphases on understanding rainfall and aerosol trends and its spatial occurrence pattern with respect to urbanization. An approach where population as an indicator for urbanization is used in this study rather than a profound investigation on the individual factors of urban induced precipitation anomalies. Mann Kendall trend test is carried out at grid level on a 0.25 degree gridded rainfall data and the trends are then related with the distribution of population in the study area. Areas of significant rainfall trends are identified and are analyzed for spatial patterns around urban areas. These identified urban zones are then further analyzed for aerosol variability. Being a monsoon region, a seasonal variation of aerosols are performed. The results shows that during the monsoon season there is a significant increase in rainfall along the Western Ghats, whereas certain grids along the western coast located at the downwind of populated areas such a Mangalore shows a significant decreasing trend. The overall spatial pattern of rainfall trend during pre-monsoon season is indicative of the influence of urban areas on rainfall. This observation during the pre-monsoon season is quantified which shows that 61% of the trends are included within urban influence zones which are only 36% of the size of Karnataka. Further various cloud characteristics and its association with aerosol loading in these urban areas were investigated. The results are indicative of higher aerosol events suppressing rainfall in these urban areas.