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Studies on Lower Tropospheric Aerosols over New Delhi, India Using Lidar

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Abstract

This study reports the altitude distribution of physical and optical properties of aerosols in the lower troposphere over the urban tropical region Delhi measured using an UV (355 nm) lidar which is capable of operating in both day and night time. It is observed that there is strong seasonal variation in the altitude (from 0.4 to 4 km) distribution of aerosols during the observation period from July 2009 to May 2010. The aerosol extinction coefficient and depolarization values range from 0.02 to 0.6 km−1 and 0.02 to 0.05 respectively during the observation period. Relatively high aerosol extinction coefficient values were observed below 1.5 km altitude during the autumn season may be due the festivals and bio-mass burning activities. In all the seasons except winter, the aerosol loading from 0.4 km to 4 km range contributes more than 38% to the atmospheric column optical depth.

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Acknowledgements

The authors are grateful to the Director, NPL and Head, ESBMD for the encouragement and infrastructure facilities to undertake the present study. The authors are thankful to M/s Leosphere, France for providing the lidar system and Dr.Sachidanand Singh, NPL for providing the Microtops data. We thank CSIR Network project PSC 0112 for necessary financial support. The MODIS satellite data is obtained from the Giovanni online data system, developed and maintained by the NASA GES DISC. The back trajectories are obtained from the NOAA HYSPLIT model. Authors acknowledge the mission scientists and Principal investigators who provided the data used in this work.

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  1. Environmental Sciences and Biomedical Metrology Division, CSIR-National Physical Laboratory, Dr. K. S. Krishnan Marg, New Delhi, 110012, India

    S. R. Radhakrishnan, B. C. Arya, C. Sharma, Arun Kumar & D. K. Shukla

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  1. S. R. Radhakrishnan
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Radhakrishnan, S.R., Arya, B.C., Sharma, C. et al. Studies on Lower Tropospheric Aerosols over New Delhi, India Using Lidar. MAPAN 32, 183–191 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12647-017-0213-9

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