Back to Search Start Over

Characteristics and optical properties of atmospheric aerosols based on long-term AERONET investigations in an urban environment of Pakistan

Authors :
Bahadar Zeb
Khan Alam
Rehana Khan
Allah Ditta
Rashid Iqbal
Mohamed Farouk Elsadek
Ahsan Raza
Mohamed Soliman Elshikh
Source :
Scientific Reports, Vol 14, Iss 1, Pp 1-11 (2024)
Publication Year :
2024
Publisher :
Nature Portfolio, 2024.

Abstract

Abstract Radiative balance, local climate, and human health are all significantly influenced by aerosol. Recent severe air pollution over Lahore, a city in Pakistan calls for more thorough research to determine the negative impacts brought on by too many aerosols. To study regional aerosol characteristics and their differences from various aspects, in-depth and long-term (2007–2020) investigations of the columnar aerosol properties over the urban environment of Lahore were carried out by using AERONET data. The Aerosol Optical Depth (AOD400) and Angstrom Exponent (AE400–870) vary from low values of 0.10 to a maximum value of 4.51 and from 0.03 to 1.81, respectively. The huge differences in the amount of AOD440 as well as AE440–870 show the large fluctuation of aerosol classes because of various sources of their emission. During the autumn and winter seasons, the decreasing trend of the optical parameters of aerosols like Single Scattering Albedo (SSA) and Asymmetry Parameter (ASY) with increasing wavelength from 675 to 1020 nm indicates the dominance of light-absorbing aerosols (biomass burning (BB) and industrial/urban (UI). Due to the long-distance dust movement during spring, summer, and autumn, coarse mode particles predominated in Lahore during the study period. Dust type (DD) aerosols are found to be the dominant one during spring (46.92%), summer (54.31%), and autumn (57.46%) while urban industry (BB/UI) was dominant during the winter season (53.21%). During each season, the clean continental (CC) aerosols are found to be in negligible amounts, indicating terrible air quality in Lahore City. The present research work fills up the study gap in the optical properties of aerosols in Lahore and will help us understand more fully how local aerosol fluctuation affects regional climate change over the urban environment of Lahore.

Details

Language :
English
ISSN :
20452322
Volume :
14
Issue :
1
Database :
Directory of Open Access Journals
Journal :
Scientific Reports
Publication Type :
Academic Journal
Accession number :
edsdoj.21d925f44c4141b4b763df220cea59a0
Document Type :
article
Full Text :
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-024-58981-0