Investigating the Aerosol Optical Depth and Angstrom Exponent and Their Relationships with Meteorological Parameters Over Lahore in Pakistan

In the present work, AERONET (AErosol RObotic NETwork) data of 2006-2014 have been used to analyze the variations in aerosol optical depth (AOD) at 500 nm and Angstrom exponent (440/870) (AE). In order to have an in-depth knowledge of aerosol variability, we have analyzed the association of aerosol properties with the meteorological parameters such as temperature, mean sea level pressure, rainfall, dew point, and dust storm frequency. Long-term observations of MODIS-AOD are also validated with AERONET-AOD over Lahore. The peak monthly mean value of AOD is found in July (1.00 +/- 0.34) with the corresponding AE value of 0.85 +/- 0.29 pointing toward the fact that desert/soil dust aerosols dominated the atmosphere of Lahore. The lowest value of AOD is found in February (0.47 +/- 0.26) with the corresponding AE value of 1.22 +/- 0.29 representing the presence of urban/industrial aerosols in the atmosphere over Lahore. The monthly mean AE value is found to be maximum in January (1.36 +/- 0.15), whereas lowest value of AE is found in June (0.55 +/- 0.25). AOD shows positive correlations with temperature, dew point, relative humidity, visibility, rain and dust storm frequency, and negative with mean sea level pressure and wind speed. AE exhibits positive correlations with relative humidity and mean sea level pressure, while with temperature, dew point, visibility, rain and dust storm frequency, it shows negative correlations.