Some features of winter aerosol and water vapor characteristics over Agra, a semi-arid location in India

Reported in this article are the results of the analysis of extensive observations of aerosol optical, micro-physical characteristics, and precipitable water content (PWC) that have been carried out using compact, multi-band solar radiometers, over a semi-arid station, Agra (27°10′N, 78°05′E, 169 m AMSL) during winter 2004. The aerosol optical depth (AOD), Angstrom wavelength exponent (α), and PWC show, higher values on hazy- and foggy-days and lower values on clear-days. The turbidity coefficient (β) shows higher values for smaller values of α and vice versa. The aerosol size spectra exhibit bi-modal distribution with abundance of accumulation-mode particles during fog and haze occasions, and relatively coarse-mode particles on clear-days. The above features have been explained with co-located PWC and surface-level meteorological parameters. The NOAA HYSPLIT five-day back trajectories indicate the influence of trans-boundary pollution transport over the experimental station during the study period.