The effect of aerosols on cloud droplet number concentration and droplet effective radius is investigated from ground-based measurements over a high-altitude site where clouds pass over the surface. The AIE found to be maxima in low liquid water content clouds but dispersion of cloud droplet size distribution and offset is high in moderate LWC. The analysis shows that there is overestimation of AIEn, estimated from droplet number concentration as compared to AIEs, estimated from droplet effective radius, which can be corrected by considering Dispersion effect. Read more... (Anil Kumar V., Pandithurai G., Leena P. P., Dani K. K., Murugavel P., Sonbawne S. M., Patil R.D., Maheskumar R.S., Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics, 16, July 2016)

Tamhini, a station located in the leeward side of northern parts of Western Ghats (WG) of India, receives a mean-monsoon rainfall of 6498.4 mm. The station has no record of any meteorological agencies in India. Therefore, the existence of such heavy rainfall (HR) station remained unknown. The analysis showed that in spite of lying on the leeward side of main WG, Tamhini's monsoon rainfall is more than that of stations lying on the windward side of the WG. This is in contrast to widely accepted view that rainfall is lower on the leeward side of mountains. This is in contrast to widely accepted view that rainfall is lower on the leeward side of mountains. Tamhini rainfall ranks number one in the north Peninsula and fifth in India. It is more compared to Cherrapunji monsoon rainfall (second highest rainfall-receiving station in India) in 8 non-El Nino years. It has the highest 1-day (695 mm) and 3-day (1055 mm) rainfalls in the Peninsular WG region. Read more... (D. R. Kothawale, N. R. Despande, S. G. Narkhedkar and J. R. Kulkarni, International Journal of Climatology, Online, June 2016)

Aerosol induced changes in cloud microphysical and radiative properties have been studied for the first time using ground-based and airborne observations over a semi-arid, rain shadow region. High Aerosol Indirect Effect (AIE) was observed over the rain shadow region, which can also be one of the causative factors for rainfall deficiency over this region. It is also observed that AIE is highly variable with CCN super saturation along with available cloud LWP. Read more... (Harikishan, G., Padmakumari B., Maheskumar R. S., Pandithurai G., Min Q. L., Jr. of Geophy. Res., Feb. 2016)