Analysis of the climatology of aerosol properties is performed over Hanle (4500 m) and Merak (4310 m), two remote-background sites in the western trans-Himalayas, based on eleven years (2008-2018) of sun/sky radiometer (POM-01, Prede) measurements. The two sites present very similar atmospheric conditions and aerosol properties allowing us to examine them as continuous single-data series. The annual average aerosol optical depth at 500 nm (AOD) is 0.04 ± 0.03, associated with an Ångström exponent (AE) of 0.58 ± 0.35 and a single scattering albedo (SSA) of 0.95 ± 0.05. AOD exhibits higher values in May (~0.07) and lower in winter (~0.03), while AE minimizes in spring, indicating influence by coarse-mode dust aerosols, either emitted regionally or long-range transported. The de-convolution of AOD into fine and coarse modes justifies the aerosol seasonality and sources, while the marginal diurnal variation in all aerosol properties reveals a weak influence from local sources, except for some few aerosol episodes. The aerosol-volume size distribution presents a mode value at ~10 μm with secondary peaks at accumulation (~ 2 μm) and fine modes (~0.03 μm) and low variability between the seasons. A classification of the aerosol types based on the fine-mode fraction (FMF) vs. SSA relationship reveals the dominance of aerosols in the FMF range of 0.4-0.6, characterized as mixed (39%), followed by fine aerosols with high scattering efficiency (26%), while particles related to dust contribute ~21%, with low fractions of fine-absorbing aerosols (~13%). The aerosol radiative forcing (ARF) estimates reveal a small cooling effect at the top of the atmosphere (-1.3 Wm), while at the surface, the ARF ranges from -2 Wm to -6 Wm on monthly basis. The monthly-mean atmospheric radiative forcing (~1 to 4 Wm) leads to heating rates of 0.04 to 0.13 K day. These ARF values are higher than the global averages and may cause climate implications over the trans-Himalayan region.

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http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2020.139354DOI Listing

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