An Analysis of Atmospheric Aerosol Characteristics Using Remote Sensing Data in the Indian Region

The aerosols present in the atmosphere are considered to be an essential element that directly affects the cloud properties, radiation budget of Earth, human health, and quality of air. Therefore, it is mandatory to investigate aerosol concentration and properties both in the local and global regions while studying global climate change. In this paper, an analysis of aerosol properties such as single scattering albedo (SSA), aerosol optical depth (AOD) at 500 nm, angstrom exponent (AE) (440–870 nm), and aerosol volume size distribution (VSD), which are retrieved from relatively long term AErosol RObotic NETwork (AERONET) at Karunya University, Kanpur, Gandhi College, Pune, and Jaipur is made for the years from 2010 to 2019. The comparisons of the parameters based on wavelength and seasons for the five places considered are provided. The result analysis shows that the indo gangetic plain (IGP) region places such as Gandhi College and Kanpur experience larger AOD values during the 10-year period considered as compared to other sites. The seasonal analysis of AE, SSA, and VSD reveals that the dominance of fine particles is available mainly in post-monsoon and winter season except Jaipur, whereas coarse particles always occurred in monsoon and pre-monsoon seasons at all the places except Karunya University. The comparison between the AODs retrieved from the MODIS (Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer) satellite and AERONET is also provided. The comparison shows that 50% and 43.48% of MODIS-derived AOD match well with the AERONET-derived AOD within the expected error values for Gandhi College and Kanpur, respectively.