Columnar Aerosol Extinction Characteristics: Measurements from a Free-Tropospheric Observatory in Western-Himalayas

Abstract

Continuous measurements of spectral aerosol optical depths (AOD) were made over a very high altitude aerosol observatory at Hanle (32.76°N, 78.95°E, 4520 m amsl), during the summer and autumn of 2009 and 2010, by using a 10-channel multi-wavelength radiometer (MWR). The results depicted very low values of AOD (with a mean for the measurement period as ~ 0.071 ± 0.003 at 500 nm), but with a spectral dependence that changed with the months from ~ 0.8 to 1.3, with a mean value of ~ 1.01 ± 0.06. The AODs though were in general comparable to those seen over pristine Antarctic environments, are quite significant when we consider the altitude of the station. The details are presented. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3126/jie.v8i3.5931 JIE 2011; 8(3): 52-57