Measurement of aerosol concentrations, soot amount and solar fluxes over the polluted Indian Ocean using three vertically stacked light weight unmanned aerial vehicles finds that atmospheric brown clouds enhance lower atmospheric solar heating by about 50 per cent. A model study also suggests that atmospheric brown clouds contribute as much as the recent increase in anthropogenic greenhouse gases to regional lower atmospheric warming trends.
- Veerabhadran Ramanathan
- Muvva V. Ramana
- David Winker