PUBLICATIONS Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres RESEARCH ARTICLE Latitudinal variation of aerosol properties from Indo- 10.1002/2013JD021040 Gangetic Plain to central Himalayan foothills Key Points: during TIGERZ campaign • First latitudinal variation of aerosols from IGP to Himalayas U. C. Dumka1, S. N. Tripathi2, Amit Misra2, D. M. Giles3,4, T. F. Eck5,4, Ram Sagar1, and B. N. Holben4 • First comprehensive calculations of heating rate 1Aryabhatta Research Institute of Observational Sciences, Nainital, India, 2Department of Civil Engineering, Indian Institute • Large gradient in heating rates seen 3 4 from IGP to Himalayas of Technology, Kanpur, India, Sigma Space Corporation, Lanham, Maryland, USA, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Maryland, USA, 5Universities Space Research Association, Columbia, Maryland, USA Correspondence to: Abstract As part of TIGERZ campaign, latitudinal variation of aerosol optical properties was analyzed over U. C. Dumka, Indo-Gangetic Plains (IGP) to central Himalayas during premonsoon of 2008 and 2009. Measurements of
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[email protected] aerosol optical depth (AOD) were performed using Aerosol Robotic Network Sun photometer at four sites with different aerosol environments. The AOD increases from Nainital located in central Himalayas to Kanpur located in IGP region. Further, aerosol size varies spatially with dominance of coarse-mode aerosols at Kanpur Citation: fi Dumka, U. C., S. N. Tripathi, A. Misra, D. M. compared to ne-mode aerosols dominated at Nainital. Spectral variation of single-scattering albedo Giles, T. F. Eck, R. Sagar, and B. N. Holben suggests that during premonsoon, dust is the dominant species in the IGP with exception of Pantnagar, (2014), Latitudinal variation of aerosol where absorbing aerosols are dominant.