Abstract
The present study focused on understanding the factors influencing visibility and its characterization for Indian major cities experiencing varied climate. By analysing historical data of past five years (2016–2020), it is observed that visibility range in tropical wet and dry climate is found to be in the range of 2.92–7.15 km (represented by Kolkata, Bombay, Chennai and Bengaluru), arid steppe or dry climate (Delhi, Ahmedabad) in the range of 2.75 to 4.28 km, temperate dry winter warm summer in the range of 5.48–5.84 km (Coimbatore and Madurai) and 2.72 km in temperate dry winter hot summer (Lucknow). Analysis of the historical weather scenarios (smoke, haze, mist, hail and dust storm/sandstorm) revealed haze contributes significantly on the visibility reduction in Kolkata (72%), Lucknow (65%), Bombay (54%) and Ahmedabad (40%), and smoke is the reason in Ahmedabad (52%) and Bombay (32%). Station ranking based on low visibility events showed the pecking order—Delhi (4245) > Lucknow (1915) > Kolkata (1618) > Bombay (1285) > Chennai (518) > Bengaluru (349) > Ahmedabad (318) > Calicut (251) > Coimbatore (76) > Madurai (35). Haze index calculated for the study regions (after excluding visibility corresponding to relative humidity (RH) > 90% as to eliminate fog events) ranged between 42 and 49 indicating poor visual air quality and poor per cent scene acceptability.
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Authors would like to thank Iowa Environmental Mesonet (IEM) for maintaining automated weather data archive and made it available for researchers.
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Ulavi, S.U., Saragur Madanayak, S.N. Characterizing Visibility in a Contrasting Climate of Indian Cities. J. Inst. Eng. India Ser. A (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40030-024-00786-5
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s40030-024-00786-5