A study on optical properties, classification, and transport of aerosols during the smog period over South Asia using remote sensing

Over the past few years, South Asian region has experienced frequent and thick smog events because of rapid population growth and enhanced anthropogenic activities, particularly in the Indo-Gangetic Plain (IGP). Therefore, the present study investigates aerosol properties such as aerosol optical depth (AOD) (500 nm), Angstrom exponent (AE) (440-870 nm), single scattering albedo (SSA), fine-mode fraction (FMF), absorption aerosol optical depth (AAOD), and absorption aerosol exponent (AAE) over selected AERONET sites namely Bhola (2012-2021), Dhaka (2012-2021), Jaipur (2011-2021), Kanpur (2011-2021), Karachi (2011-2021), Lahore (2011-2021), and Pokhara (2011-2021) in the IGP during the smog period (October, November, and December). Additionally, different aerosol types were categorized using AERONET direct sun (AOD, AE) and inversion products (VSD, SSA, RI, FMF, and ASY). The monthly mean AOD, AE, and FMF varied from ⁓0.33 to 1.07, ⁓0.3 to 1.4, and 0.6-0.9 µm over all selected AERONET sites during the smog period. Moreover, the outcomes revealed the dominance of biomass-burning and urban/ industrial aerosols over Lahore, Karachi, Dhaka, and Bhola during the smog period. Contrary to this, dust and mixed aerosols were abundant over Jaipur and Karachi, respectively. Furthermore, HYSPLIT cluster analysis is used to trace the transmission paths and potential sources of aerosols over selected sites.

A GPU-Accelerated Radiation Transfer Model Using the Lattice Boltzmann Method

A prototype of a three-dimensional (3-D) radiation model is developed using the lattice Boltzmann method (LBM) and implemented on a graphical processing unit (GPU) to accelerate the model’s computational speed. This radiative transfer-lattice Boltzmann model (RT-LBM) results from a discretization of the radiative transfer equation in time, space, and solid angle. The collision and streaming computation algorithm, widely used in LBM for fluid flow modeling, is applied to speed up the RT-LBM computation on the GPU platform. The isotropic scattering is assumed in this study. The accuracy is evaluated using Monte Carlo method (MCM) simulations, showing RT-LBM is quite accurate when typical atmospheric coefficients of scattering and absorption are used. RT-LBM runs about 10 times faster than the MCM in a same CPU. When implemented on a NVidia Tesla V100 GPU in simulation with a large number of computation grid points, for example, RT-LBM runs ~120 times faster than running on a single CPU. The test results indicate RT-LBM is an accurate and fast model and is viable for simulating radiative transfer in the atmosphere with ranges for the isotropic atmosphere radiative parameters of albedo scattering (0.1~0.9) and optical depth (0.1~12).

Spatiotemporal relationship between Himawari-8 hourly columnar aerosol optical depth (AOD) and ground-level PM2.5 mass concentration in mainland China

Himawari-8 aerosol products have been widely used to estimate the near-surface hourly PM_2.5 concentrations due to the high temporal resolution. However, most studies focus on the evaluation model. As the foundation of the estimation, the relationship between near-surface PM_2.5 and columnar aerosol optical depth (AOD) has not been comprehensively investigated. In this study, we investigate the relationship between PM_2.5 and advanced Himawari imager (AHI) AOD for 2016-2018 across mainland China on different spatial and temporal scales and the factors affecting the association. We calculated the Pearson correlation coefficients and the PM_2.5/AOD ratio as the analysis indicators in 345 cities and 14 urban agglomerations based on the collocations of PM_2.5 and AHI AOD. From 9:00 to 17:00 local time, the PM_2.5-AOD correlation become significantly stronger while The PM_2.5/AOD ratio markedly decrease in Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei, Yangtze River Delta, and Chengyu regions. The strongest correlation is between 12:00 and 14:00 LT (at noon) and between 13:00 and 17:00 LT (afternoon), respectively. The ratio in a day shows an obvious unimodal mode, and the peak occurred at around 10:00 or 11:00 LT, especially in autumn and winter. There is a pronounced variation of the PM_2.5-AOD relationship in a week during the winter. Moreover, there are the strongest correlation and the largest ratio for most urban agglomerations during the winter. We also find that PM_2.5 and AOD are not always correlated under different meteorological conditions and precursor concentrations. Furthermore, for the scattering-dominated fine-mode aerosol, there is a high correlation and a low ratio between PM_2.5 and AOD. The correlation between PM_2.5 and AHI AOD significantly increases with increasing the number of AOD retrievals on a day. The findings will provide meaningful information and important implications for satellite retrieval of hourly PM_2.5 concentration and its exposure estimation in China, especially in some urban agglomerations.

Solar irradiance changes and photobiological effects at earth's surface following astrophysical ionizing radiation events

Astrophysical ionizing radiation events have been recognized as a potential threat to life on Earth, primarily through depletion of stratospheric ozone and subsequent increase in surface-level solar ultraviolet radiation. Simulations of the atmospheric effects of a variety of events (such as supernovae, gamma-ray bursts, and solar proton events) have been previously published, along with estimates of biological damage at Earth's surface. In this work, we employed the Tropospheric Ultraviolet and Visible (TUV) radiative transfer model to expand and improve calculations of surface-level irradiance and biological impacts following an ionizing radiation event. We considered changes in surface-level UVB, UVA, and photosynthetically active radiation (visible light) for clear-sky conditions and fixed aerosol parameter values. We also considered a wide range of biological effects on organisms ranging from humans to phytoplankton. We found that past work overestimated UVB irradiance but that relative estimates for increase in exposure to DNA-damaging radiation are still similar to our improved calculations. We also found that the intensity of biologically damaging radiation varies widely with organism and specific impact considered; these results have implications for biosphere-level damage following astrophysical ionizing radiation events. When considering changes in surface-level visible light irradiance, we found that, contrary to previous assumptions, a decrease in irradiance is only present for a short time in very limited geographical areas; instead we found a net increase for most of the modeled time-space region. This result has implications for proposed climate changes associated with ionizing radiation events.