Short period variations in aerosol optical depths at a coastal urban location, Visakhapatnam

Abstract

The aerosol optical depths derived from the multispectral solar extinction studies at Visakhapatnam, a coastal industrialized location on the east coast of India show some short period variations in time scale in addition to the long term variations like seasonal and annual ones, depending on the local weather patterns. The occurrences of such changes which are seen in the form of forenoon-afternoon variations are spectral dependent and are observed all through the year with high probabilities during summer and winter months. The occurrence and the extent of variations seem to be controlled by the aerosol transport depending on certain mesoscale meteorological phenomena like sea breeze and low-level capped-inversion, in addition to the surface wind and precipitation.