HR: 11:35h
AN: GC22A-06 INVITED     [Abstracts]
TI: Impact of the Growing Population and Energy Demand on the Climatic Conditions of the Indo-Gangetic Basin
AU: * Singh, R P
EM: ramesh@iitk.ac.in
AF: Department of Civil Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur, Kanpur, UP 208016 India
AU: Prasad, A K
EM: akprasadiitk@gmail.com
AF: Department of Civil Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur, Kanpur, UP 208016 India
AU: Kafatos, M
EM: mkafatos@gmu.edu
AF: Center for Earth Observing and Space Research, School of Computational Sciences, George Mason University, Fairfax, VA 22030 United States
AB: The Indo-Gangetic (IG) basin is one of the largest basins in the world which is densely populated and suffers with dense fog, haze and smog during winter season. About 500 million people live in the IG basin and due to the dense fog, haze and smog day to day life suffers. India is the third largest producer of the coal in the world and a large share is used in power and industrial sector. The coal used in the power plants is of poor quality (mostly E-F grade or lignite) with high ash content (35-50%) and low calorific value. India's energy consumption has increased 208% from 4.16 quadrillion Btu (quads) in 1980 to 12.8 quads in 2001 with a coal share of ~50.9%. Recent studies using satellite (Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) and Multiangle Imaging SpectroRadiometer (MISR)) and AERONET measurements show high aerosol optical depth (AOD) representing the intense air pollution over the IG basin that persists throughout the year. Such high concentrations of AOD show spatial and temporal variations which are controlled by the meteorological conditions (wind pattern, relative humidity, air temperature etc.) and topography. The high AOD observed over the IG basin is attributed to the emissions of fossil fuel SO2 and black carbon which has increased about 6 fold since 1930. The high AOD over the IG basin is attributed to the huge emission from the dense network of coal based thermal power plants in the IG basin and its surroundings that may be the probable cause for the atmospheric brown clouds (ABC). The impact of aerosol parameters on the climatic conditions will be discussed.
DE: 0305 Aerosols and particles (0345, 4801, 4906)
DE: 0345 Pollution: urban and regional (0305, 0478, 4251)
DE: 1610 Atmosphere (0315, 0325)
DE: 1616 Climate variability (1635, 3305, 3309, 4215, 4513)
DE: 1640 Remote sensing (1855)
SC: Global Climate Change [GC]
MN: Fall Meeting 2005