Observation of aerosol induced ‘lower tropospheric cooling’ over Indian core monsoon region

Aerosols play a significant role in regional scale pollution that alters the cloud formation process, radiation budget, and climate. Here, using long-term (2003–2019) observations from multi-satellite and ground-based remote sensors, we show robust aerosol-induced instantaneous daytime lower tropospheric cooling during the pre-monsoon season over the Indian core monsoon region (ICMR). Quantitatively, an average cooling of -0.82 °C ± 0.11 °C to -1.84 °C ± 0.25 °C is observed in the lower troposphere. The observed cooling is associated with both aerosol-radiation and aerosol-cloud-radiation interaction processes. The elevated dust and polluted-dust layers cause extinction of the incoming solar radiation, thereby decreasing the lower tropospheric temperature. The aerosol-cloud interactions also contribute to enhancement of cloud fraction which further contributes to the lower tropospheric cooling. The observed cooling results in a stable lower tropospheric structure during polluted conditions, which can also feedback to cloud systems. Our findings suggest that aerosol induced lower tropospheric cooling can strongly affect the cloud distribution and circulation dynamics over the ICMR, a region of immense hydroclimatic importance.