Article ID | Journal | Published Year | Pages | File Type |
---|---|---|---|---|
8139861 | Journal of Atmospheric and Solar-Terrestrial Physics | 2018 | 41 Pages |
Abstract
This paper presents the results of a detailed study on the size characteristics of aerosols at the tropical coastal site Thiruvananthapuram based on the in-situ measurements of size resolved aerosol number density using an aerosol spectrometer, covering a period of 28 months from September 2011 to December 2013. The diurnal pattern of aerosol number density is characterized by day time low and a two-fold increase during nighttime and these changes are closely associated with the strong mesoscale features namely the sea breeze and land breeze prevailing at the site. Aerosol Number Size Distribution (NSD) depicts a multi-modal nature with two prominent modes, one â¤0.1â¯Î¼m and other â¼1â¯Î¼m. Two other less pronounced modes are also observed in the NSD, one â¼0.3-0.5â¯Î¼m and other â¼5-8â¯Î¼m. The NSDs also exhibited strong seasonal changes linked with the synoptic meteorological feature of this region namely the South Asian monsoon. The seasonal NSDs were parameterized and analyzed. In addition to this, the effects of meteorological parameters temperature, relative humidity, and wind speed and airflow patterns on aerosol number density as revealed by partial correlation analysis were found to be aerosol size dependent.
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Authors
S. Aryasree, Prabha R. Nair,