Decreasing Aerosol Loading in the North American Monsoon Region.

ABSTRACT: We examine the spatio-temporal variability of aerosol loading in the recent decade (2005-2014) over the North American Monsoon (NAM) region. Emerging patterns are characterized using aerosol optical depth (AOD) retrievals from the NASA Terra/Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) instrument along with a suite of satellite retrievals of atmospheric and land-surface properties. We selected 20 aerosol hotspots and classified them into fire, anthropogenic, dust, and NAM alley clusters based on the dominant driver influencing aerosol variability. We then analyzed multivariate statistics of associated anomalies during pre-, monsoon, and post-monsoon periods. Our results show a decrease in aerosol loading for the entire NAM region, confirming previous reports of a declining AOD tre

SUBMITTER: Raman A 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5422029 | biostudies-literature | 2016 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature