Open AccessDiscriminating between natural and anthropogenic aerosol contributions to optical depth over Afro‐Asian region
Author(s) -
Deepshikha S.,
Srinivasan J.
Publication year - 2010
Publication title -
atmospheric science letters
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.951
H-Index - 45
ISSN - 1530-261X
DOI - 10.1002/asl.299
Subject(s) - aerosol , environmental science , climatology , radiative transfer , atmospheric sciences , monsoon , natural (archaeology) , geography , meteorology , geology , physics , archaeology , quantum mechanics
To accurately assess the impact of anthropogenic aerosols on climate, spatial and temporal distribution of its radiative properties is essential. The first step towards separating the radiative impact of natural aerosol from its anthropogenic counterparts is to gather information on natural aerosols. In this paper, we have used data from multiple satellites to derive the anthropogenic aerosol fraction (AAF) over the Afro‐Asian region. The AAF was largest during the pre‐monsoon season (May–June) and lowest during winter. We have shown that over desert locations the AAF was unexpectedly large (>0.4) and the regionally (and annually) averaged anthropogenic fraction over the Afro‐Asian region was 0.54 ± 0.12. Copyright © 2010 Royal Meteorological Society