Record spike in aerosols in Hindu Kush region: Study

The Hindu Kush-Plateau Himalaya-Tibetan region has been witnessing an alarming increase in aerosol levels that could be driving increased temperatures, altering rainfall patterns, accelerating glacier retreat and initiating changes in the hydrological cycle in the region, a new analysis by the Indian Space Research Organisation's (Isro) Physical Research Laboratory has shown.

- Soumya Pillai

The study, the first of its kind, used ground-based observations, satellite data, and simulations, to assess aerosol characteristics and radiative forcing change in energy flux in the atmosphere caused by natural or anthropogenic factors of climate the - in several locations in the Indo-Gangetic Plains (IGP), the Himalayan foothills and the Tibetan Plateau. Data shows that the aerosol radiative forcing efficiency (ARFE) - which shows the effect of anthropogenic aerosols on the radiative fluxes at the top of the atmosphere-was significantly higher in the Himalayan foothills.