Aerosol characteristics at a remote island: minicoy in southern Arabian sea

Abstract

Extensive measurements of aerosol optical and microphysical properties made at a remote island, Minicoy in southern Arabian Sea for the period (February 2006-March 2007) are used to characterize their temporal variability and Black Carbon (BC) mass mixing ratio. Large decrease in aerosol BC (from ~800 ng m^-3 to ~100 ng m^-3) was observed associated with change in airmass characteristics and monsoon rains. The total aerosol mass varied between ~80 and 20 μg m^-3. Though the total mass fell drastically, a slight increase in super micron mass was observed during the June-August period associated with high winds. The mass fraction of Black Carbon aerosols during the prevalence of continental airmass is found to be ~1.2% of the composite aerosols, which is much lower than the values reported earlier for this region.