Radiation, Aerosol Joint Observations - Monsoon Experiment in Gangetic-Himalayas Area

Study Areas: 

Pre-Monsoon anthropogenic and dust aerosol interactions

Date Range: 

Wednesday, April 1, 2009 to Monday, June 1, 2009

During the pre-monsoon season of 2009, JAMEX/TIGERZ/RAJO-MEGHA deployment was conducted jointly by the Kathmandu University, Tribhuvan University, Duke University, Birla Institute of Technology, and the NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC). With the help of Nepali and Indian scientists, the SMART-COMMIT and Deep-Blue teams at GSFC, set up 11 observational sites throughout Nepal and North India along the IGP to characterize the temporal and spatial distributions of aerosols in the region.

In addition, two lidars operated at 355 nm and 532 nm wavelengths were also deployed by the MPLNET team at the Kathmandu University and IIT-Kanpur, respectively, to profiling aerosol vertical distributions. The measured aerosol information from this experiment can then be used to refine climate modeling for investigating the role played by aerosols in the regional climate.