Probing for overshooting as extreme event of thunderstorms

Thunderstorm overshooting is rare but not an unusual phenomenon in a metropolitan of India, Kolkata (22.57° N; 88.36° E) during the pre-monsoon months (April–May). An attempt is made in this study to identify the important parameters differentiating the thunderstorms in overshooting and non-overshooting categories through data analytics from 2000 to 2015. The present investigation on parametric classification would facilitate in estimating the predictability of thunderstorms with overshooting which subsequently might assist in operational forecast of thunderstorm severity over Kolkata. The altitudes of lifting condensation level (LCL), wind shear, bulk Richardson number (BRN), gust speed, boundary layer characteristics and their correlation with thunderstorm cloud top height (CTH) and also their variation and distribution during overshooting (OTS) and non-overshooting (TS) thunderstorms are analyzed in this study. The result depicts that over Kolkata the intensity of storms during OTS is higher than during TS though the frequency of OTS is less than that of TS. The results further show that the potential temperature (θ), equivalent potential temperature (θ_e), mixing ratio (e_s) in the boundary layer, convective available potential energy, convective inhibition energy, BRN and gust speed play significant roles in regulating the CTH during OTS and TS thunderstorms over Kolkata.

     

Analysis of stability parameters in relation to precipitation associated with pre-monsoon thunderstorms over Kolkata,India

The upper air RS/RW (Radio Sonde/Radio Wind) observations at Kolkata (22.65N, 88.45E) during pre-monsoon season March–May, 2005–2012 is used to compute some important dynamic/thermodynamic parameters and are analysed in relation to the precipitation associated with the thunderstorms over Kolkata, India. For this purpose, the pre-monsoon thunderstorms are classified as light precipitation (LP), moderate precipitation (MP) and heavy precipitation (HP) thunderstorms based on the magnitude of associated precipitation. Richardson number in non-uniformly saturated (R _i *) and saturated atmosphere (R _i ); vertical shear of horizontal wind in 0–3, 0–6 and 3–7 km atmospheric layers; energy-helicity index (EHI) and vorticity generation parameter (VGP) are considered for the analysis. The instability measured in terms of Richardson number in non-uniformly saturated atmosphere ( \(R_{i}^{\mathrm {\ast } })\) well indicate the occurrence of thunderstorms about 2 hours in advance. Moderate vertical wind shear in lower troposphere (0–3 km) and weak shear in middle troposphere (3–7 km) leads to heavy precipitation thunderstorms. The wind shear in 3–7 km atmospheric layers, EHI and VGP are good predictors of precipitation associated with thunderstorm. Lower tropospheric wind shear and Richardson number is a poor discriminator of the three classified thunderstorms.     

Evaluating the impact of climate change in threshold values of thermodynamic indices during pre-monsoon thunderstorm season over Eastern India

Natural Hazards - The present study analyses thermodynamic indices variation over three sites of eastern Indian region: Bhubaneswar, Kolkata and Ranchi, associated with pre-monsoon thunderstorms...     

Study of thermodynamic indices in forecasting pre-monsoon thunderstorms over Kolkata during STORM pilot phase 2006–2008

The pre-monsoon convective atmosphere over Kolkata (22.52°N, 88.37°E) during STORM field phase 2006–2008 is investigated using 12 UTC radiosonde data and thermodynamic indices. In the present study, an attempt has been made to assess the skill of various indices and parameters and to propose suitable threshold values in forecasting the occurrence of thunderstorm activity at Kolkata. The thermodynamic indices and parameters used in the present study are lifted index (LI), K index (KI), severe weather threat index (SWEAT), total totals index (TTI), convective available potential energy (CAPE), deep convection index (DCI), humidity index (HI), Boyden index (BI), dew point temperature at 850 hpa (DEW), relative humidity at 700 hpa (RH), and bulk Richardson number (BRN). Validation of the suggested threshold values of indices was conducted on the days of thunderstorm activity. It was found that one index alone cannot predict the occurrence of thunderstorm over Kolkata region. The present study suggests that the indices with highest skill for thunderstorm prediction are KI, DCI, SWEAT, DEW, HI, RH, LI, TTI, while the prediction efficiency is poor for CAPE, BRN, and BI. Observed values of these indices also reveal that scattered, multi-cellular thunderstorms are possible over Kolkata during pre-monsoon months.     

About the variability in thunderstorm and rainfall activity over India and its association with El Niño and La Niña

Thunderstorms are of much importance in tropics, as this region is considered to have central role in the convective overturn of the atmosphere and play an important role in rainfall activity. It is well known that El Niño and La Niña are well associated with significant climate anomalies at many places around the globe. Therefore, an attempt is made in this study to analyze variability in thunderstorm days and rainfall activity over Indian region and its association with El Niño and La Niña using data of thunderstorm day’s for 64 stations well distributed all over India for the period 1981–2005 (25 years). It is seen that thunderstorm activity is higher and much variable during pre-monsoon (MAM) and southwest monsoon (JJAS) than the rest of the year. Positive correlation coefficients (CCs) are seen between thunderstorms and rainfall except for the month of June during which the onset of the southwest monsoon sets over the country. CCs during winter months are highly correlated. Composite anomalies in thunderstorms during El Niño and La Niña years suggest that ENSO conditions altered the patterns of thunderstorm activity over the country. Positive anomalies are seen during pre-monsoon (MAM) and southwest monsoon months (JAS) during La Niña years. Opposite features are seen in southwest monsoon during El Niño periods, but El Niño favors thunderstorm activity during pre-monsoon months. There is a clear contrast between the role of ENSO during southwest monsoon and post-monsoon on thunderstorm activity over the country. Time series of thunderstorms and precipitation show strong association with similarities in their year-to-year variation over the country.     

The interaction of large scale and mesoscale environment leading to formation of intense thunderstorms over Kolkata Part I: Doppler radar and satellite observations

The weather systems that predominantly affect the eastern and northeastern parts of India during the pre-monsoon summer months (March, April and May) are severe thunderstorms, known as Nor’westers. The storms derive their names from the fact that they frequently strike cities and towns in the southern part of West Bengal in the afternoon from the north-west direction while traveling far from its place of genesis over the Bihar plateau. The storms are devastating in nature particularly due to strong (gusty) winds, heavy rains and hails associated with it. Although these storms are well known for its power of causing damages, studies on them are relatively few due to their small size and sparse network of observations. To address this important issue, the evolution of two Nor’westers of 12 March and 22 May 2003 over Kolkata is studied in detail in this paper using hourly Doppler weather radar (DWR) observations and high resolution Meteosat-5 imageries. In addition, supporting meteorological reports are used to find the large scale conditions that influence the moisture convergence and vertical wind shear. The genesis of both the storms is found to be over Bihar-Jharkhand region and beyond the range of the DWR. The satellite observations are found to be useful in identifying the location and initiation of the storms. The movements of the storms are captured by the DWR estimated vertical cross-section of reflectivities. The Doppler estimate shows that the 12 March storm had a vertical extent of about 10–12 km at the time of maturity and that of 22 May reaching up to 18 km signifying deep convection associated with these events. The genesis, maturity and dissipation are well brought out by the hourly DWR and satellite imageries. The DWR observations suggest that the systems move at a speed of 20–25 m/s. The DWR estimated precipitation shows a detailed spatial distribution around Kolkata with several localized zones of heavy rain and this is found to be well supported by the nearby station observations. This study establishes that DWR observations along with hourly satellite imageries are able to capture the evolution of Nor’westers. The study also shows that the composite DWR-satellite information is a reliable tool for nowcasting the location, time and path of movement of Nor’westers. Based on these observations, a conceptual model of the Nor’wester is proposed.     

Analysis of seasonal and annual rainfall trends for Ranchi district,Jharkhand, India

The aim of this study was to investigate temporal variation in seasonal and annual rainfall trend over Ranchi district of Jharkhand, India for the period (1901–2014: 113 years). Mean monthly rainfall data series were used to determine the significance and magnitude of the trend using non-parametric Mann–Kendall and Sen’s slope estimator. The analysis showed a significant decreased in rainfall during annual, winter and southwest monsoon rainfall while increased in pre-monsoon and post-monsoon rainfall over the Ranchi district. A positive trend is detected in pre-monsoon and post-monsoon rainfall data series while annual, winter and southwest monsoon rainfall showed a negative trend. The maximum decrease in rainfall was found for monsoon (? 1.348 mm year^?1) and minimum (? 0.098 mm year^?1) during winter rainfall. The trend of post-monsoon rainfall was found upward (0.068 mm year^?1). The positive and negative trends of annual and seasonal rainfall were found statistically non-significant except monsoon rainfall at 5% level of significance. Rainfall variability pattern was calculated using coefficient of variation CV, %. Post-monsoon rainfall showed the maximum value of CV (70.80%), whereas annual rainfall exhibited the minimum value of CV (17.09%), respectively. In general, high variation of CV was found which showed that the entire region is very vulnerable to droughts and floods.     

Performance of microbial-induced carbonate precipitation on wind erosion control of sandy soil

Wind erosion is a serious problem throughout the world which results in soil and environment degradation and air pollution. The main objective of this study was to evaluate feasibility of microbial-induced carbonate precipitation, as a novel soil-strengthening technique, to reduce wind erosion risk of a sandy soil. For this purpose, the erosion of biocemented soil samples was investigated experimentally in a wind tunnel under the condition of wind velocity of 45 km h^?1. The weight loss of treated samples relative to the weight loss of control treatment was 1.29 and 0.16 % for low and high bacterial mix concentrations, respectively, indicating a significant improvement in erosion control in biologically treated samples. The effect of biological treatment on wind erosion control was even superior at the higher velocities. Thereafter, the penetration resistance of the surface layers as a simple index of resistance against wind erosion was measured. Significant improvements in the penetration resistance of the treated soil samples were observed. Although low bacterial mix concentrations did not significantly improve the penetration resistance of the samples, significant improvements in the penetration resistance of the treated soil samples were observed reaching to the highest measured strength (56 kPa) in high bacterial mix concentrations samples. Finally, the morphology of precipitated CaCO₃ crystals using scanning electron microscopy and X-ray powder diffraction analysis showed that the CaCO₃ was mainly precipitated as vaterite crystals forming point-to-point contacts between the sand granules.     

Thunderstorms over a tropical Indian station,Minicoy: Role of vertical wind shear

In this study, an attempt has been made to bring out the observational aspects of vertical wind shear in thunderstorms over Minicoy. Case studies of thunderstorm events have been examined to find out the effect of vertical wind shear and instability on strength and longevity of thunderstorms. Role of vertical wind shear in thunderstorms and its mechanism has been explored in this study. Results reveal that for prolonged thunderstorms high and low instability along with moderate to high vertical wind shear (moderate: 0.003 S⁻¹ ≤ vertical wind shear ≤ 0.005 S⁻¹ and high: > 0.005 S⁻¹) play a significant role in longevity and strength of thunderstorms. The mechanism of vertical wind shear in thunderstorms was investigated in a few cases of thunderstorm events where the duration of thunderstorm was covered by the radiosonde/rawin ascent observation taken at Minicoy. Empirical model has been developed to classify thunderstorm type and to determine the strength and longevity of thunderstorms. Model validation has been carried out for selected cases. Model could classify thunderstorm type for most of the cases of thunderstorm events over island and coastal stations.     

Markov chain model to study the occurrence of pre-monsoon thunderstorms over Bhubaneswar,India

The present work deals with pre-monsoon thunderstorms over Bhubaneswar belonging to the state of Orissa, India. A Markovian approach has been adopted to discern the probabilistic behavior of the time series of the occurrence and non-occurrence of this hazardous weather event by introducing a dichotomy within the time series. After a painstaking analysis through chi-square tests, we have identified serial independence in a few years and first-order two-state Markovian dependence in a few years (2000, 2001, 2004 and 2006). Finally, for the years of first-order two-state Markovian dependence, it has been observed that the probability of occurrence or non-occurrence of thunderstorm gets higher if the state of the previous day is similar to that of the current day. Furthermore, the probability of getting non-thunderstorm day followed by non-thunderstorm day is higher than the probability of getting thunderstorm day followed by thunderstorm day. It has been also observed that the unconditional climatological probability of the occurrence of severe pre-monsoon thunderstorm implied by the Markov chain is closely in agreement with the observed relative frequencies. However, it could be revealed that Markov chain cannot, in general, be suggested as a predictive tool for pre-monsoon thunderstorms under study without investigating the serial dependence inherent in the time series.     

Study of near surface boundary layer characteristics during pre-monsoon seasons using micrometeorological tower observations

Studying the boundary layer is imperative because severe weather in this portion of the atmosphere impacts on environment and various facets of national activities and affects the socioeconomic scenario of a region. Near surface boundary layer characteristics are investigated through the vertical variation of fluxes of heat, moisture, momentum, kinetic energy and Richardson number during the pre-monsoon season (April-May) at Kharagpur (22° 30’ N, 87° 20’ E) and Ranchi (23° 32’ N, 85° 32’ E) with 50 and 32 m tower data, respectively, on thunderstorm and non-thunderstorm days. The temporal variation of fluxes within the boundary layer and the kinetic energy at different logarithmic heights are observed to vary significantly between thunderstorm and non-thunderstorm days. The heat and momentum fluxes show a maximum peak while the moisture flux shows a sudden attenuation just before the occurrence of thunderstorms. The wind field depicts to play a crucial role at the inland station Kharagpur, which is in the proximity of the Bay of Bengal, compared to the station Ranchi, situated over hilly terrain on Chotanagpur. The micrometeorological study of the boundary layer reveals a significant finding pertaining to observe the passage of thunderstorms. It is observed that the ratio of the potential temperature (θ) and equivalent potential temperature (θe) remains confined within a critical range between 0.85 and 0.90 during the passage of thunderstorms.     

Medium-range forecast of cyclogenesis over North Indian Ocean with multilayer perceptron model using satellite data

An attempt is made in this study to develop a model to forecast the cyclonic depressions leading to cyclonic storms over North Indian Ocean (NIO) with 3 days lead time. A multilayer perceptron (MLP) model is developed for the purpose and the forecast quality of the model is compared with other neural network and multiple linear regression models to assess the forecast skill and performances of the MLP model. The input matrix of the model is prepared with the data of cloud coverage, cloud top temperature, cloud top pressure, cloud optical depth, cloud water path collected from remotely sensed moderate resolution imaging spectro-radiometer (MODIS), and sea surface temperature. The input data are collected 3 days before the cyclogenesis over NIO. The target output is the central pressure, pressure drop, wind speed, and sea surface temperature associated with cyclogenesis over NIO. The models are trained with the data and records from 1998 to 2008. The result of the study reveals that the forecast error with MLP model varies between 0 and 7.2 % for target outputs. The errors with MLP are less than radial basis function network, generalized regression neural network, linear neural network where the errors vary between 0 and 8.4 %, 0.3 and 24.8 %, and 0.3 and 32.4 %, respectively. The forecast with conventional statistical multiple linear regression model, on the other hand, generates error values between 15.9 and 32.4 %. The performances of the models are validated for the cyclonic storms of 2009, 2010, and 2011. The forecast errors with MLP model during validation are also observed to be minimum.     

Meteorological features associated with unprecedented precipitation over India during 1st week of March 2015

Unprecedented precipitation along with heavy falls occurred over many parts of India from 28th February to 2nd March 2015. Many of the stations of northwest and central India received an all time high 24 hr cumulative precipitation of March during this period. Even the national capital, New Delhi, broke all the previous historical 24 hr rainfall records of the last 100 years to the rainfall record in March 2015. Due to this event, huge loss to agricultural and horticultural crops occurred in several parts of India. In the present study, an attempt is made to understand the various meteorological features associated with this unprecedented precipitation event over India. It occurred due to the presence of an intense western disturbance (WD) over Afghanistan and neighbouring areas in the form of north–south oriented deep trough in westerlies in middle and upper tropospheric levels with its southern end deep in the Arabian Sea, which pumped huge moisture feed over Indian region. Also, there was a jet stream with core wind speed up to 160 knots that generated high positive divergence at upper tropospheric level over Indian region; along with this there was high magnitude of negative vertical velocity and velocity convergence were there at middle tropospheric level. It caused intense upward motion and forced lower levels air to rise and strengthen the lower levels cyclonic circulations (CCs)/Lows. Moreover, the induced CCs/Lows at lower tropospheric levels associated with WD were more towards south of its normal position. Additionally, there was wind confluence over central parts of India due to westerlies in association with WD and easterlies from anticyclone over north Bay of Bengal. Thus, intense WD along with wind confluence between westerlies and easterlies caused unprecedented precipitation over India during the 1st week of March 2015.     

Subsurface dams to harvest rainwater— a case study of the Swarnamukhi River basin, Southern India

Declining water level trends and yields of wells, deterioration of groundwater quality and drying up of shallow wells are common in many parts of India. This is mainly attributed to the recurrence of drought years, over exploitation of groundwater, increase in the number of groundwater structures and explosion of population. In this subcontinent, the saving of water has to be done on the days it rains. India receives much of its rainfall in just 100 h in a year mostly during the monsoon period. If this water is not captured or stored, the rest of the year experiences a precarious situation manifest in water scarcity. The main objective behind the construction of subsurface dams in the Swarnamukhi River basin was to harvest the base flow infiltrating into sandy alluvium as waste to the sea and thereby to increase groundwater potential for meeting future water demands. An analysis of hydrographs of piezometers of four subsurface dams, monitored during October 2001–December 2002, reveals that there is an average rise of 1.44 m in post-monsoon and 1.80 m in the pre-monsoon period after the subsurface dams were constructed. Further, during the pre-monsoon month of June, much before construction of subsurface dams in October 2001, the water level was found fluctuating in the range of 3.1–10 m, in contrast to the fluctuation ranging from 0.4 to 3.1 m during the period following the construction of dams. Hence, the planning of rainwater harvesting structures entails thorough scientific investigations for identifying the most suitable locations for subsurface dams.     

Analysis and prediction of a catastrophic Indian coastal heat wave of 2015

Heat wave of 2015 over India, a natural disaster with 2500 human deaths, was studied to understand the characteristics, associated atmospheric circulation patterns and to evaluate its predictability. Although temperatures are highest in May over India, occurrence of heat wave conditions over southeast coastal parts of India in May 2015 had been unanticipated. Analyses revealed that isolated region of Andhra Pradesh (AP) had experienced severe heat wave conditions during May 23–27, 2015, with temperatures above 42 °C and the sudden escalation by 7–10 °C within a short span of 2–3 days. Short-range weather predictions with Advanced Research Weather Research and Forecasting model at 3-km resolution, up to 72-h lead time, have been found accurate with statistical metrics of small mean absolute error and root-mean-square error and high index of agreement confirming the predictability of the heat wave evolution. Analyses have indicated that regional atmospheric pressure disparities within the Eurasia region, i.e., increased pressure gradient between the Middle East and India, had been responsible for increased northwest wind flow over to northwest India and to southeast India which have advected higher temperatures. Estimates of warm air advection have shown heat accumulation over AP region, due to sea breeze effect. The study led to the conclusion that changing pressure gradients between Middle East and India, enhancement of northwest wind flow with warm air advection and sea breeze effect along southeast coast blocking the free flow have contributed to the observed heat wave episode over coastal Andhra Pradesh.     

An appraisal of groundwater quality for drinking and irrigation purposes in southern part of Bathinda district of Punjab, northwest India

Groundwater is being used for drinking and irrigation purposes in the agricultural dominated Indian state of Punjab. Fifty-six groundwater samples were collected from Bathinda, a south-western district of Punjab, during the pre-monsoon (March 2010) and post-monsoon (October 2011) seasons. These samples were tested for major cations, anions and contaminants. Various classification systems were used to study the groundwater quality with respect to drinking as well as irrigation purposes. Total dissolved solids (TDS) and total hardness (TH) are generally used to determine the suitability of groundwater for drinking purpose. Considering TDS as a parameter, 54 and 57 % groundwater samples were found to be unsuitable for use during the pre- and post-monsoon seasons. A wide range of TH values were observed in the pre-monsoon and post-monsoon waters samples (mean 250 and 270 mgL^?1). About 75 % of pre-monsoon and 79 % of post-monsoon samples exceeded the maximum permissible limit (MPL) of TH (150 mg L^?1) proposed by WHO. In terms of contaminant ions, 40 % and 55 % of the pre- and post-monsoon water samples were unfit for drinking purposes w.r.t. fluoride (MPL 1.5 mg F L^?1), 29 and 36 % were unfit w.r.t arsenic (MPL 10 μg L^?1) and 33 and 45 % were unfit w.r.t nitrate (MPL 45 mg NO₃ ^? L^?1), respectively. To determine the suitability of groundwater of Bathinda for irrigation purpose, three classification systems proposed by different research workers were used. The parameters electrical conductivity (EC), sodium adsorption ratio, and residual sodium carbonate (RSC) were calculated on the basis of chemical data. Considering EC and RSC together, 32 % samples collected during pre-monsoon season were fit, 19 % were marginal and 49 % were unfit for use. However, during post-monsoon, samples fit for irrigation decreased to 17 % and samples unfit for irrigation increased to 70 %. Increases in the percentage of unfit samples for irrigation after monsoon indicates addition of salts along with the rain water percolated into the groundwater. The other two classification systems, i.e. US Salinity diagram and Wilcox diagram also showed the similar results.     

Real-time nowcast of a cloudburst and a thunderstorm event with assimilation of Doppler weather radar data

Extreme weather events such as cloudburst and thunderstorms are great threat to life and property. It is a great challenge for the forecasters to nowcast such hazardous extreme weather events. Mesoscale model (ARPS) with real-time assimilation of DWR data has been operationally implemented in India Meteorological Department (IMD) for real-time nowcast of weather over Indian region. Three-dimensional variational (ARPS3DVAR) technique and cloud analysis procedure are utilized for real-time data assimilation in the model. The assimilation is performed as a sequence of intermittent cycles and complete process (starting from reception, processing and assimilation of DWR data, running of ARPS model and Web site updation) takes less than 20 minutes. Thus, real-time nowcast for next 3 h from ARPS model is available within 20 minutes of corresponding hour. Cloudburst event of September 15, 2011, and thunderstorm event of October 22, 2010, are considered to demonstrate the capability of ARPS model to nowcast the extreme weather events in real time over Indian region. Results show that in both the cases, ARPS3DVAR and cloud analysis technique are able to extract hydrometeors from radar data which are transported to upper levels by the strong upward motion resulting in the distribution of hydrometeors at various isobaric levels. Dynamic and thermodynamic structures of cloudburst and thunderstorm are also well simulated. Thus, significant improvement in the initial condition is noticed. In the case of cloudburst event, the model is able to capture the sudden collisions of two or more clouds during 09–10 UTC. Rainfall predicted by the model during cloudburst event is over 100 mm which is very close to the observed rainfall (117 mm). The model is able to predict the cloudburst with slight errors in time and space. Real-time nowcast of thunderstorm shows that movement, horizontal extension, and north–south orientation of thunderstorm are well captured during first hour and deteriorate thereafter. The amount of rainfall predicted by the model during thunderstorm closely matches with observation with slight errors in the location of rainfall area. The temporal and spatial information predicted by ARPS model about the sudden collision/merger and broken up of convective cells, intensification, weakening, and maintaining intensity of convective cells has added value to a human forecast.     

Seasonal disparity in the co-occurrence of arsenic and fluoride in the aquifers of the Brahmaputra flood plains,Northeast India

Arsenic (As) and fluoride (F^?) in groundwater are increasing global water quality and public health concerns. The present study provides a deeper understanding of the impact of seasonal change on the co-occurrence of As and F^?, as both contaminants vary with climatic patterns. Groundwater samples were collected in pre- and post-monsoon seasons (n = 40 in each season) from the Brahmaputra flood plains (BFP) in northeast India to study the effect of season on As and F^? levels. Weathering is a key hydrogeochemical process in the BFP and both silicate and carbonate weathering are enhanced in the post-monsoon season. The increase in carbonate weathering is linked to an elevation in pH during the post-monsoon season. A Piper diagram revealed that bicarbonate-type water, with Na⁺, K⁺, Ca²⁺, and Mg²⁺ cations, is common in both seasons. Correlation between Cl^? and NO₃ ^? (r = 0.74, p = 0.01) in the post-monsoon indicates mobilization of anthropogenic deposits during the rainy season. As was within the 10 µg L^?1 WHO limit for drinking water and F^? was under the 1.5 mg L^?1 limit. A negative correlation between oxidation reduction potential and groundwater As in both seasons (r = ?0.26 and ?0.49, respectively, for pre-monsoon and post-monsoon, p = 0.05) indicates enhanced As levels due to prevailing reducing conditions. Reductive hydrolysis of Fe (hydr)oxides appears to be the predominant process of As release, consistent with a positive correlation between As and Fe in both seasons (r = 0.75 and 0.73 for pre- and post-monsoon seasons, respectively, at p = 0.01). Principal component analysis and hierarchical cluster analysis revealed grouping of Fe and As in both seasons. F^? and sulfate were also clustered during the pre-monsoon season, which could be due to their similar interactions with Fe (hydr)oxides. Higher As levels in the post-monsoon appears driven by the influx of water into the aquifer, which drives out oxygen and creates a more reducing condition suitable for reductive dissolution of Fe (hydr)oxides. An increase in pH promotes desorption of As oxyanions AsO₄ ^3? (arsenate) and AsO₃ ^3? (arsenite) from Fe (hydr)oxide surfaces. Fluoride appears mainly released from F^?-bearing minerals, but Fe (hydr)oxides can be a secondary source of F^?, as suggested by the positive correlation between As and F^? in the pre-monsoon season.     

Decline in horizontal surface visibility over India (1961–2008) and its association with meteorological variables

Horizontal surface visibility range, one of the simplest measures of local atmospheric pollution, is critical for aviation, surface transport besides long-term impact on human health and climate. Long-term observations from multiple stations (including airports) across the world show statistically significant decline in visibility. We have studied climatology and trends of morning poor visibility days (PVD, visibility <4 km) and afternoon good visibility days (GVD, visibility >10 km) based on 279 surface meteorological stations well distributed over India for the period 1961–2008. During last 5 decades, all India averaged range of annual morning PVD has increased from 6.7 to 27.3 % days, while the range of afternoon GVD has decreased from 76.1 to 30.6 % days. Annually, the morning PVD increased significantly at 3.3 % days per decade, and the afternoon GVD declined significantly at ?8.6 % days per decade. Seasonally, the highest increase in morning PVD has occurred in winter (+4.3 % days per decade), while post-monsoon has the highest decrease in afternoon GVD (?9.2 % days per decade). In spatial distribution, visibility has decreased nationwide especially over Indo-Gangetic (IG) plains, central, east and northeast India which is due to increased wintertime fog, water vapor and aerosol loading. The IG plains suffer from increased fog or smog and aerosol loading during wintertime. Long-term visibility impairment over India is visible through increasing morning PVD (decreasing GVD) and decreasing afternoon GVD (increasing PVD) which are spatially well correlated with increasing relative humidity and decreasing wind speed (seasonal).     

Nowcasting visibility during wintertime fog over the airport of a metropolis of India: decision tree algorithm and artificial neural network approach

Natural Hazards - The endeavor of the present research is to nowcast the spatial visibility during fog over the airport of Kolkata (22.6°N; 88.4°E), India, with artificial neural network...