Acp-2018-1109-RC1 the Submitted Manuscript Presents Detailed
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
We thank both reviewers for their constructive comments, which as outlined below have helped improve the manuscript. This document outlines the review comments in plain italics, followed by the authors replies in bold. acp-2018-1109-RC1 5 The submitted manuscript presents detailed airborne in situ measurements of aerosols taken during different flights over northern India covering pre-monsoon and monsoon seasons. The characteristics of aerosols over the region are presented regarding high quality vertical and spatial measurements of optical, microphysical, and chemical composition of aerosols. The measurement dataset reveals higher concentration of organic matter followed by sulfate, ammonium, and black carbon mostly confined within 10 the boundary layer inside the Indo-Gangetic Plain (IGP)–one of the most densely populated areas of the world. Above the boundary layer, the measurements show the dominance of coarse mode dust aerosols between 3-6 km transported from the adjacent Thar Desert. Outside the IGP, the sulfate component is found to dominate the aerosol mass followed by other species. Upon arrival of monsoon season and then onwards, the mass concentration of aerosols is found to decrease significantly, by ∼50% and ∼30%, 15 outside and inside the IGP region, respectively. The results presented in the paper bring an unprecedented set of information about aerosol spatial and vertical distribution, with its chemical analysis, over northern India, which can help constraint aerosol representation in the models and satellite-based remote sensing algorithms. However, first, it was a little surprise to me that authors didn’t include the CALIOP space lidar data to complement and support (or not) their findings. CALIOP lidar provides a detailed vertical 20 structure of aerosol backscatter and extinction that can be compared with the aircraft measurements for the consistency (or lack thereof) check. Second, the ground-based AERONET aerosol measurements at a couple of sites (Kanpur and Gandhi College) located in the center of IGP can also offer another perspective and correlation to the presented measurements. Authors are strongly recommended to add these two components to the article which, in my opinion, will further enhance the content and quality of 25 the work. Specific suggestions on the paper are listed below. The article is mostly well-written with some attention needed to improve the presentation, e.g., long sentences, punctuations. The content highlighted in the paper certainly fits into the scope of the ACP journal and can be published given that above two major concerns are addressed. We thank the Reviewer for their encouraging view of our work and the useful suggestions for 30 consideration of CALIPSO remote-sensing and AERONET ground-based data, which we have incorporated in the revised manuscript. SPECIFIC COMMENTS 1 It was a little surprise to me that authors didn’t include the CALIOP space lidar data to complement and support (or not) their findings. CALIOP lidar provides a detailed vertical structure of aerosol backscatter and extinction that can be compared with the aircraft measurements for the consistency (or lack thereof) check. Second, the groundbased AERONET aerosol measurements at a couple of sites (Kanpur and 5 Gandhi College) located in the center of IGP can also offer another perspective and correlation to the presented measurements. Authors are strongly recommended to add these two components to the article which, in my opinion, will further enhance the content and quality of the work. CALIPSO browse images https://www-calipso.larc.nasa.gov/products/lidar/browse_images/production/ 10 Daytime CALIOP/CALIPSO overpass on the Indian subcontinent on June 11th Nighttime overpass on June 30th Daytime and nighttime overpass on July 11th AERONET data over Kanpur and Gandhi College: https://aeronet.gsfc.nasa.gov/ AERONET volume size distribution and fine-mode fraction can be compared with aircraft measurements, at least on a qualitative 15 sense. This information has now been added to the paper. The CALIPSO satellite retrieval from the daytime pass on June 11th has been added and is Figure 4. The CALIPSO data shows useful comparison and agreement with the on-board lidar plot in Figure 3. The aerosol structure is 20 comparable between both lidar plots, with CALIPSO successfully capturing the maximum aerosol height during the pre-monsoon in northern India (~6-7 km) along with the values shown representing dust aerosol dominance, consistent with the literature for the pre-monsoon season (page 8 line 20-24). While it does not show the distinct aerosol layers that the AMS and SP2 data reveal, it does reinforce the features shown from the on-board lidar in Figure 3. 25 Title: Remove ‘comma’ and ‘the’ Complied with, we agree that this is better for the title. 30 Abstract: Line 4: “. .high mass concentration of dust(?)” Line 11: what is ‘std’? “std” is referring to a correction to the aerosol mass concentrations, to present them at standard temperature (273.15 K) and pressure (1013.25 hPa) conditions. This is explained for example in section 2.2 (page 6 line 24). To avoid any confusion, as the correction is explained in the main text 35 body, we have decided to remove the ‘std’ from the abstract. 2 Line 20-25: Elevated concentration of dust at altitudes >1.5 is a clear indication of dust transport from the Great Indian Desert, also called the Thar Desert, in northwestern India This point has been noted and clarified in the text, thank you. 5 Introduction Page 3, line 17: “. .have been subject to analysis now for nearly two decades” Jethva et al. (2005) has been one of the early research works highlighted the seasonal variability of aerosols, both natural and anthropogenic, over the Indian sub-continent using satellite and ground measurements. Jethva, H., S. K. Satheesh, and J. Srinivasan (2005), Seasonal variability of aerosols over the IndoâA˘ 10 RGangetic basin, J. Geophys. Res., 110, D21204, ˇ doi:10.1029/2005JD005938. Noted – we have included this useful reference into the introduction. Page 3, line 21-22: “Much uncertainty. ..that determine the resultant climatic impact of aerosols as well 15 as the regional air quality” Complied with, the text has been altered. Methodology and Climatology Page 4, line 8: “A total of twenty-two science flights. .” 20 Complied with and clarified this point in the text. As explained in the response to referee 2, this text has been altered to 10 flights as this study only involves 10 science flights from the campaign, not the 22 that were flown overall for the project. The other flights were in regions not applicable to this paper. 25 Results: Page 8, line 14-15: Figure3: The extinction profile derived from lidar measurements show peak concentration between 1.5 to 2 km for June 11th-flight B956; that for June 12th-flight B957 shows centroid of the aerosol layer at 3 km with the presence of aerosols with reduced extinction from 6 km to all the way to near-surface. The author needs to reword the interpretation of Figure 3. 30 The text has been adapted to clarify the features shown in the lidar extinction profile, in order to accurately interpret Figure 3 (page 8 line 14-16). Last paragraph: It is striking to me that NW region shows a minor peak in SO4 between 4 to 6 km, but 35 the peak is much clearer and more pronounced over IGP. There is no doubt, in my opinion, that elevated peak in concentration over IGP is a result of transported dust from NW, likely from the Thar Desert, but it is intriguing and a bit counter-intuitive that such peak isn’t observed over NW! 3 Firstly we thank the referee for this insight into our data. In our study, we do not try and examine exactly where the sulphate aerosol is coming from. The regional air mass directions are consistently from the northwest during the pre-monsoon, but it is difficult to analyse the sources of the sulphate 5 aerosol. Oil production and power plants are seen to be present in northwest India and the surrounding areas (Garg and Shukla, 2009) which could be producing the sulphate, but given the heterogeneous nature of the wind patterns there would be very large differences in the sulphate mass concentrations with only a small change in the air mass direction. However, we understand this is an area that needs considering, and we have now added this awareness of the possibility of 10 sulphate sources in the text (section 4; page 13 line 27-31). Garg, A. and Shukla, P.R.: Coal and energy security for India: Role of carbon dioxide (CO2) capture and storage (CCS). Energy, 34(8), pp.1032-1041, 2009. Page 9, Figure 5: Please mention in the caption that the data belongs to the first 1000 meters of the 15 atmosphere. Complied with – this is now mentioned in the figure caption. Page 10, first paragraph: Bringing here the size distribution retrievals from AERONET over Kanpur and 20 Gandhi College stations for the same dates or nearby dates is necessary here to complement and compare the aircraft observations. Complied with – the AERONET size distribution over Kanpur is included, however not Ghandi College due to lack of data during the measuring period for the study. The data for Kanpur does 25 show agreement which complements the aircraft observations, with the reduction in volume size distribution especially in the larger aerosol size range as the monsoon arrives. The AERONET volume size distributions have been added to Figure 9 (page 29). Page 13, line 1: “. .aerosol haze in and around the IGP” Page 13, line 16: “aerosol presence” 30 This is now complied with thank you – edits have been made in the text. Page 14, line 16: “such as China with a ratio of” 35 Noted thank you; we have adapted the text as such 4 acp-2018-1109-RC2 This manuscript presents the results on physical and chemical properties of elevated aerosol layer and their vertical and horizontal distribution within and outside of IGP region over India using UK Facility for Airborne Atmospheric Measurements Bae-16 research aircraft measurements.