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A Study of Aerosol–Cloud Variability under Different Rainfall Scenarios over Western India and the Arabian Sea

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Abstract

Clouds and aerosols contribute substantial uncertainty to the estimation of precipitation patterns at the global and regional scale. The present study focuses on understanding spatiotemporal and vertical variability in aerosol–cloud interactions over western India and the Arabian Sea. The study was conducted for the period 2000–2018 using data from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) and Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) satellites and a regional climate model. In situ measurements of rainfall for western India from the India Meteorological Department (IMD) were also used. High values of aerosol optical depth (0.21–1.10) were observed for deficit rain, whereas low values (0.15–0.85) accounted for excess rain over western India. Over both regions, a negative linear correlation between aerosol optical depth and cloud effective radius and between aerosol optical depth and precipitation rate for excess, normal, and deficit rainfall conditions, with variations in correlation coefficient and slope values for the three monsoon conditions. In general, higher slope values were observed for excess rain over both regions, signifying a greater rate of change in cloud effective radius and precipitation rate with change in aerosol optical depth. Simulated cloud parameters including fractional cloud cover and the mass fraction of cloud liquid water content showed significant vertical variability for different monsoon conditions along different latitudes and longitudes for western India and the Arabian Sea, respectively.

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Data availability

Satellite data has been available through online web portal of Giovanni, Earth Data. Rainfall data has been taken from IMD web portal. Input datasets for model simulations have been available from ICTP web portal. Details of all the datasets are included in the acknowledgement section.

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Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank the Department of Science and Technology-Science and Engineering Research Board, India, for granting the Fast Track Project (ECR/2017/002000). Also, we wish to acknowledge the online web portal of Giovanni, Earth Data, for providing satellite retrievals of MODIS and TRMM (https://giovanni.gsfc.nasa.gov/giovanni/). For regional climate model simulations, input datasets from NNRP1 and EIN75 have been utilized. Along with this, rainfall data have been taken from ground-based measurements through the IMD web portal.

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  1. Department of Physics, Pandit Deendayal Energy University, Raisan, Gandhinagar, India

    Rohit Srivastava, Ruchita Shah, Jigisha Patel & Dency Panicker

  2. Space and Atmospheric Sciences Division, Physical Research Laboratory, Navrangpura, Ahmedabad, India

    Som Sharma

  3. Department of Mathematics, Pandit Deendayal Energy University, Raisan, Gandhinagar, India

    Bhasha Vachharajani

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  1. Rohit Srivastava
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Rohit Srivastava has contributed significantly in this research work, which includes scientific theme, analysis, conception and design of the manuscript. Ruchita Shah has drafted and organized the manuscript. JP and Ruchita Shah both have collected the data, organized along with its analysis. SS and BV have given their scientific contribution as well as editing of all the prepared drafts. DP has improved the language of the manuscript with high English proficiency. Ruchita Shah and DP have revised the manuscript according to the reviewers and have incorporated their suggestions. All the authors have read and approved the final manuscript.

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Srivastava, R., Shah, R., Sharma, S. et al. A Study of Aerosol–Cloud Variability under Different Rainfall Scenarios over Western India and the Arabian Sea. Pure Appl. Geophys. 180, 3035–3052 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00024-023-03305-y

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