Papers by Neelesh Kumar Lodhi
Social Science Research Network, 2022
Geophysical Research Letters, 2009
From an analysis of electron density profiles recorded aboard Mars Global Surveyor, we report obs... more From an analysis of electron density profiles recorded aboard Mars Global Surveyor, we report observations of some new and aeronomically important solar flare effects in the ionosphere of Mars. We find that all flares result in the formation of a well defined E layer peak, not always seen on other days. Further, while majority of flares result in elevated electron densities in the E region alone, some flares affect both the E and F1 layers. These altitude-related effects can provide vital information on the relative enhancement of photon fluxes in the various wavelength bands during solar flares. By using the unit optical depth values at Mars from Fox (2004) and the XUV irradiance model of Meier et al. (2002) for the Bastille Day solar flare, we infer that the well defined E peaks could result from enhancement of photon fluxes in the 10-13 nm spectral band. The extension of effect to the F1 layer is due to hardening of the 26-91 nm spectral band, as supported by Solar EUV Monitor measurements on Solar Heliospheric Observatory.
Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres, 2013
We present the climatology of aerosol microphysics, its trends, and impact of potential sources b... more We present the climatology of aerosol microphysics, its trends, and impact of potential sources based on the long term measurements (for a period of 11.5 years from December 2001 to May 2012) of aerosol optical depths (AOD) in the spectral range 340-1020 nm from an urban center Delhi (28.6 N, 77.3 E, 238 m mean sea level) in the western Indo-Gangetic Plain (IGP). The study is the first ever long-term characterization of aerosols over the western IGP from the ground-based measurements. AODs are known to affect the air quality, visibility, radiative balance, and cloud microphysics of the region and IGP is one of the highest populated and polluted regions of the world. Our measurements show consistently high AOD during the entire period of observation. The seasonal variations of spectral AODs and Angstrom parameters are generally consistent every year. The AODs show a weak but statistically significant (in 95% confidence level) decreasing trend approximately À0.02/year at 500 nm, possibly, modulated by the pre-monsoon heavy dust loading during the first half of the observation period. The climatological monthly mean AOD at shorter wavelengths peaks twice, during June and November, while at longer wavelengths it shows only one peak in June. The annual variations of Angstrom exponent, a and its derivative, a′ suggest the prevalence of multi-modal aerosol size distributions at Delhi. The coarse-mode aerosols dominate during summer (March-June) and monsoon (July-September) seasons, whereas fine/accumulation mode enhances during post-monsoon (October-November) and winter (December-February) seasons. Potential advection pathways have been identified using concentration weighted trajectory (CWT) analysis of the 5 day isentropic air mass back trajectories at the observation site and their seasonal variations are discussed.
Journal of Geophysical Research, 2010
Most studies dealing with solar flare effects in the upper ionosphere, where ionization is caused... more Most studies dealing with solar flare effects in the upper ionosphere, where ionization is caused by EUV photons, have been based upon X-ray fluxes measured by the SOLRAD and GOES series of satellites. To check the validity of such studies, we compare simultaneous observations of GOES X-ray fluxes and SOHO EUV fluxes for 10 X-class solar flares which occurred during the maximum phase of sunspot cycle 23. These include the greatest flare of 4 November 2003, the fourth greatest flare of 28 October 2003 and the 14 July 2000 Bastille Day flare. We find that the peak intensities of the X-ray and EUV fluxes for these flares are poorly correlated, and this poor correlation is again seen when larger data containing 70 X-class flares, which occurred during the period January 1996 to December 2006, are examined. However, this correlation improves vastly when the central meridian distance (CMD) of the flare location is taken into account. We also study the response of the upper ionosphere to these fluxes by using the midday total electron content (TEC), observed for these flares by Liu et al. (2006). We find that peak enhancement in TEC is highly correlated with peak enhancement in EUV flux. The correlation, though poor with the X-ray flux, improves greatly when the CMD of flare location is considered.
1] We present the climatology of aerosol microphysics, its trends, and impact of potential source... more 1] We present the climatology of aerosol microphysics, its trends, and impact of potential sources based on the long term measurements (for a period of 11.5 years from December 2001 to May 2012) of aerosol optical depths (AOD) in the spectral range 340-1020 nm from an urban center Delhi (28.6 N, 77.3 E, 238 m mean sea level) in the western Indo-Gangetic Plain (IGP). The study is the first ever long-term characterization of aerosols over the western IGP from the ground-based measurements. AODs are known to affect the air quality, visibility, radiative balance, and cloud microphysics of the region and IGP is one of the highest populated and polluted regions of the world. Our measurements show consistently high AOD during the entire period of observation. The seasonal variations of spectral AODs and Angstrom parameters are generally consistent every year. The AODs show a weak but statistically significant (in 95% confidence level) decreasing trend approximately À0.02/year at 500 nm, possibly, modulated by the pre-monsoon heavy dust loading during the first half of the observation period. The climatological monthly mean AOD at shorter wavelengths peaks twice, during June and November, while at longer wavelengths it shows only one peak in June. The annual variations of Angstrom exponent, a and its derivative, a′ suggest the prevalence of multi-modal aerosol size distributions at Delhi. The coarse-mode aerosols dominate during summer (March-June) and monsoon (July-September) seasons, whereas fine/accumulation mode enhances during post-monsoon (October-November) and winter (December-February) seasons. Potential advection pathways have been identified using concentration weighted trajectory (CWT) analysis of the 5 day isentropic air mass back trajectories at the observation site and their seasonal variations are discussed.
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Papers by Neelesh Kumar Lodhi