Joint spatial variability of aerosol, clouds and rainfall in the Himalayas from satellite data
Abstract
Satellite-based precipitation, Aerosol Optical Depth (AOD), Cloud Optical Depth (COD),
and Aerosol Index (AI) data were used to characterize the linkages among landform
and the intra-annual variability of aerosols, cloudiness and rainfall in the Himalayas
using empirical orthogonal function (EOF) analysis. The first modes of AOD and AI
show the presence of two branches of dust aerosol: over the Indus river basin and
the Thar desert with a sharp west-east gradient parallel to the southern slopes of
the Himalayas the Southern Branch; and the second against the slopes of the Tian Shan
and over the Takla Makan desert in the Tibetan Plateau-the Northern branch. The third
EOF mode of AOD accounts for about 7% of overall variance of AOD. It is attached to
the foothills of the Himalayas east of the Aravalli range peaking in April-May-June
followed by a sharp decrease in July during the first active phase of the monsoon.
The first and second EOF modes of COD and precipitation show consistent patterns against
the central and eastern Himalayas and along the ocean-land boundaries in western India
and the Bay of Bengal. The break in cloudiness and rainfall between the winter and
the monsoon seasons is captured well by the second EOF mode of COD and rainfall concurrent
with the aerosol build up mode (April-May) over the region depicted by the third mode
of AOD. The results show that the Aravalli range separates the two different modes
of aerosol variability over northern India with dust aerosols to the west and polluted
mixed aerosols to the east consistent with its role in regional circulation and precipitations
patterns as per Barros et al. (2004) and Chiao and Barros (2007). SVD analysis between
rainfall, COD and AOD showed a pattern of aerosol loading (resembling EOF3 of MODIS
AOD) extending from 80° E∼90° E that peaks during the winter and pre-monsoon seasons
and decays abruptly during the monsoon: the regions of aerosol buildup during the
pre-monsoon season and the areas of high rainfall/cloudiness during the monsoon are
collocated and have opposite signs suggesting aerosol-cloud-rainfall interaction.
It is proposed that the third EOF of AOD maps the area where aerosol-cloud-rainfall
interactions play an important role in the regional hydro-climatology. © Author(s)
2010.
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Journal articlePermalink
https://hdl.handle.net/10161/4619Published Version (Please cite this version)
10.5194/acp-10-8305-2010Publication Info
Shrestha, P; & Barros, AP (2010). Joint spatial variability of aerosol, clouds and rainfall in the Himalayas from satellite
data. Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics, 10(17). pp. 8305-8317. 10.5194/acp-10-8305-2010. Retrieved from https://hdl.handle.net/10161/4619.This is constructed from limited available data and may be imprecise. To cite this
article, please review & use the official citation provided by the journal.
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Ana P. Barros
Edmund T. Pratt, Jr. School Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Civil and Environmental
Engineering
Professor Ana Barros was born in Africa, grew up in Angola and Portugal, and has lived
almost all of her adult life in the United States. She attended the Faculty of Engineering
of the University of O’Porto where she obtained a summa cum laude Diploma in Civil
Engineering with majors in Structures and Hydraulics in 1985, and a M.Sc. degree in
Ocean Engineering in 1988 with a thesis focusing on numerical modeling of sediment
transport in estuaries and coastal regions. In 1990, Dr. Barros

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