Propagation of cloud base to higher levels during Covid-19-Lockdown.

Autor: R L; Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology, Ministry of Earth Sciences, Pune, India., B S M; Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology, Ministry of Earth Sciences, Pune, India. Electronic address: murthy@tropmet.res.in., B S S; Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology, Ministry of Earth Sciences, Pune, India., Bhanage V; Indian Institute of Technology, Mumbai, India., Rathod A; Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology, Ministry of Earth Sciences, Pune, India., Tiwari A; India Meteorological Department, Ministry of Earth Sciences, New Delhi, India., Beig G; Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology, Ministry of Earth Sciences, Pune, India., Singh S; India Meteorological Department, Ministry of Earth Sciences, New Delhi, India.
Jazyk: angličtina
Zdroj: The Science of the total environment [Sci Total Environ] 2021 Mar 10; Vol. 759, pp. 144299. Date of Electronic Publication: 2020 Dec 09.
DOI: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2020.144299
Abstrakt: Aerosol-cloud interactions and feedbacks play an important role in modulating cloud development, microphysical and optical properties thus enhancing or reducing precipitation over polluted/pristine regions. The lockdown enforced on account of Covid-19 pandemic is a unique opportunity to verify the influence of drastic reduction in aerosols on cloud development and its vertical distribution embedded in identical synoptic conditions. Cloud bases measured by ceilometer in Delhi, the capital of India, are observed to propagate from low level to higher levels as the lockdown progresses. It is explained in terms of trends in temporal variation of cloud condensation nuclei (CCN) and precursor gases to secondary hygroscopic aerosols. The large reduction (47%) in CCN estimated from aerosol extinction coefficient during the lockdown results in upward shift of cloud bases. Low clouds with bases located below 3 km are found to have reduced significantly from 63% (of total clouds distributed in the vertical) during pre-lockdown to 12% in lockdown period (less polluted). Cloud base height is found to have an inverse correlation with CCN (r = -0.64) and NO 2 /NH 3 concentrations (r = -0.7). The role of meteorology and CCN in modulating the cloud vertical profiles is discussed in terms of anomalies of various controlling factors like lifting condensation level (LCL), precipitable water content (PWC) and mixing layer height (MLH).
Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.
(Copyright © 2020 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)
Databáze: MEDLINE
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