Impact Assessment of Aerosol Optical Depth on Rainfall in Indian Rural Areas

Abstract

Aerosol significantly influences the life cycle of clouds and their formation. Many studies reported worldwide on anthropogenic aerosols and their impact on clouds and their optical properties. Atmospheric remote sensing provides the best way to estimate indirectly air quality surveillance and management in megacities of developing countries like India where many cities have elevated concentration profiles of air pollutants with inadequate coverage of spatial and temporal monitoring. The results of the study highlighted the impact on rainfall patterns due to aerosol optical depth (AOD) and fine particulate matter (PM2.5) for a total of 7 years (2015–2021) over five different Indian rural sites by using MODerate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS). The AOD (550 nm) and PM2.5 were retrieved from the MODIS sensor Terra satellites and the MEERA 2 model, respectively. Also, we have analyzed in this study the relationship of AOD (550 nm) with PM2.5 and meteorological variables (temperature relative humidity and precipitation) over Indian rural sites during 2015–2021. The maximum concentration of AOD (550 nm) has been measured for Gandhi college (2.94 ± 0.44) and minimum for ARM college (0.01 ± 0.28), while the maximum concentration of PM2.5 has been measured for ARM College 296.37 (µg m −3 ) and minimum for Karunya University 0.02 (µg m −3 ). Also, the relation between AOD (550 nm) with total precipitation is measured positively for all locations except Gandhi college whereby PM2.5 associated with total precipitation is measured negatively for all locations except ARM college. Finally, the relationship between PM2.5 and AOD (550 nm) is measured positively in all selected locations except Singhad Institute. The maximum rainfall has been observed for monsoon months (June–August) and post-monsoon months (October) for all locations during the study period. The maximum total precipitation has been measured for Singhad 11,674.7 (mm) and the minimum for Karunya University 4563.41 (mm). However, the results of the study indicated that there was no direct trend observed in AOD in five different selected rural Indian sites.

Micro‐ to macro‐scaling analysis of PM2.5 in sensitive environment of Himalaya, India

“…Several towns and hill stations lying in the Himalayan range are tourism hotspots and garner lakhs of tourists. The heavy influxes of tourist activities cause a hike in particulate matter (PM) emission, which poses an imbalance to the ecosystem (Gautam et al 2022a&b; Gupta et al, 2022; Morakinyo et al, 2017). The increased concentration of PM is hazardous as it directly or indirectly affects human life by impacting the pulmonary system and causing various health issues (Chelani & Gautam, 2022; Harr et al, 2022; Kumar, Samuel, et al, 2022; Wang et al, 2021).…”

“…A number of variables, including increased vehicle mobility, factories with excessive emissions and a lack of environmental awareness are responsible for the low air quality index (Gautam et al, 2020; Masih et al, 2019; Musthaq et al, 2022). Studies related to PM 2.5 focus on chemical components testing and its spatial dispersion to explore the impact on climate change (Gautam et al, 2022; Gautam, Gautam, et al, 2021). In recent studies (Dong et al, 2017; Wang, 2019; Wang et al, 2021), PM 2.5 time series are used for air quality analysis through fractal and multifractal scaling behaviour.…”

Review of retrieval of aerosol optical depth to estimate particle concentration and its challenges based on spatiotemporal relationships by various spectroradiometer models

“…For example, New Delhi and similar metropolitan cities like Chennai, Kolkata and Mumbai are characterized by various air pollution scenarios in the winter seasons (Tiwari et al, 2009). Many states of India are also prone to air quality degradation and related issues (Gautam et al, 2022; Kumar et al, 2022). In 2017, India witnessed approximately 1.23 million human deaths caused only by the degradation of air quality (Balakrishnan et al, 2019).…”

Black carbon emissions in the rural Indian households: Sources, exposure, and associated threats

“…The incomplete combustion of fossil fuels, biomass, and other factors are major sources of BC in the atmosphere (Bikkina et al, 2019;Gautam et al, 2019;Kumar et al, 2023;Ambade et al, 2023;Kurwadkar et al, 2023). Additionally, BC/Particulate Matter (PM) negatively impacts human health, agricultural productivity, ecological health, visibility, air quality, and global warming (Gautam et al, 2020;Gautam et al, 2022;Goel et al, 2018;Gong et al, 2016;Hazarika et al, 2017Hazarika et al, , 2019. With a total climate forcing of 1.1 W m À2 (0.17-2.1 W m À2 ) and a short lifetime (5 days) in the atmosphere, BC has recently drawn a lot of interest due to its significant potential for global warming, second only to carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) (Bond et al, 2013;Stocker, 2014).…”