Search

Abstract: This study explores the inevitable role of wind parameters such as wind speed, wind convergence and wind vorticity in the long range transport and distribution of aerosols in the winter time atmosphere over the Bay of Bengal (BoB) during the campaign Winter ICARB. MODIS observed aerosol optical depth (AOD), with an excellent agreement with ship borne Microtops AOD, was found to increase over the BoB particularly, in the eastern parts during the course of the campaign. The influence of atmospheric circulation on this increase is examined using the wind field from NCEP reanalysis and computed wind convergence and vorticity for first and second halves (FH and SH) of the campaign along with a back trajectory analysis using HYSPLIT transport and dispersion model. While surface winds over the BoB remained nearly the same throughout the campaign denying the possibility of enhancement in marine aerosol generation, the higher altitude winds altered significantly in SH providing a channel for aerosol transport from the Indian landmass to the BoB in addition to the increased forest fire contribution from south Asia. This suggested mechanism is supported by CALIPSO aerosol extinction profiles over the eastern BoB and the surrounding land masses. Fine particle dominance in MODIS AOD and diminished correlation between ship borne AOD and surface aerosol mass measurements during SH corroborate this inference by indicating the presence of elevated aerosol layers, which can contribute substantially to the radiative effects of the earth–atmosphere system. This study throws light on the importance of wind convergence and vorticity in the investigations on the long range transport and spatial distribution of aerosols. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: A new model of blue jets as a lightning-related phenomenon is proposed. A blue jet consists of the bi-leader, whose top part is seen on photos as a “trunk of a tree”, and is capped at the topside of the leader by its streamer zone. The latter is shown as tall and narrow branches of “the tree”. It is shown that the time independent fractal blue jet model does not provide an adequate description of blue jets and streamer zone of a leader. It ignores an important fact of the fast loss of the streamer channel conductivity due to the electron attachment to the oxygen. The top streamer branches were born mostly prior to the bottom branches not as result of branching, but formed by the leader tip. It was shown that due to transfer of the high potential of the edge of the thundercloud by the leader, long streamers of blue jets can be sustained by moderate cloud charge. The streamer length is estimated along with the height at which the streamers can reach the ionosphere. The propagation of a streamer in the atmosphere of exponentially falling density N and in the self-consistent electric field of the streamer zone was computed. It was found that the critical external field E S required for unlimited streamer growth satisfies the similarity law E S/N⋍const. The similarity law was numerically studied in a wide range of N. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]