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Abstract: Aerosol measurements over a tropical semi-arid site in Anantapur (14.62°N, 77.65°E, 331 m asl), India, provide the variabilities of aerosol characteristics for the period of January 2007–December 2008. The mean values of aerosol optical depth at 500 nm (AOD500 nm) over 2-year period are found to be 0.37 ± 0.11, 0.39 ± 0.13 and 0.30 ± 0.10 during winter, summer and monsoon seasons, respectively. A rather systematic variation is seen with AOD peaking in the month of March, falling off gradually to the lowest value in June and increasing slowly superposed with some modulations, which show a weak secondary peak in October. The mean and standard values of the Ångström exponent, α (turbidity coefficient, β), are found to be 1.06 ± 0.33 (0.17 ± 0.05) during winter, 0.97 ± 0.35 (0.22 ± 0.04) during summer and 0.85 ± 0.26 (0.16 ± 0.06) during monsoon. The frequency distribution of α is relatively broad with two modes for dusty (α < 1) and non-dusty (α > 1) situations. This frequency distribution of α reveals a great dispersion of a values in all seasons thus denoting variability in the aerosol-size distribution. In this study, spectral AOD and Ångström exponent data are analyzed to obtain information about the adequacy of the simple use of the Ångström exponent and its variation for characterizing optical properties of aerosols, and exploring possibilities for a more efficient characterization of them. Using the least-squares fit method, the Ångström parameter, α, is calculated in the spectral interval 380–850 nm, along with coefficients a1 and a2 of the second-order polynomial fit to the plotted logarithm of AOD versus the logarithm of wavelength. The correlations between the coefficients a1 and a2 with months and α are discussed in the paper. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: In this second of two companion papers, we quantify for the first time the global impact on premature mortality of the inter-continental transport of fine aerosols (including sulfate, black carbon, organic carbon, and mineral dust) using the global modeling results of (Liu et al., 2009). Our objective is to estimate the number of premature mortalities in each of ten selected continental regions resulting from fine aerosols transported from foreign regions in approximately year 2000. Our simulated annual mean population-weighted (P-W) concentrations of total PM2.5 (aerosols with diameter less than 2.5 μm) are highest in East Asia (EA, 30 μg m−3) and lowest in Australia (3.6 μg m−3). Dust is the dominant component of PM2.5 transported between continents. We estimate global annual premature mortalities (for adults age 30 and up) due to inter-continental transport of PM2.5 to be nearly 380 thousand (K) in 2000. Approximately half of these deaths occur in the Indian subcontinent (IN), mostly due to aerosols transported from Africa and the Middle East (ME). Approximately 90K deaths globally are associated with exposure to foreign (i.e., originating outside a receptor region) non-dust PM2.5. More than half of the premature mortalities associated with foreign non-dust aerosols are due to aerosols originating from Europe (20K), ME (18K) and EA (15K); and nearly 60% of the 90K deaths occur in EA (21K), IN (19K) and Southeast Asia (16K). The lower and higher bounds of our estimated 95% confidence interval (considering uncertainties from the concentration–response relationship and simulated aerosol concentrations) are 18% and 240% of the estimated deaths, respectively, and could be larger if additional uncertainties were quantified. We find that in 2000 nearly 6.6K premature deaths in North America (NA) were associated with foreign PM2.5 exposure (5.5K from dust PM2.5). NA is least impacted by foreign PM2.5 compared to receptors on the Eurasian continent. However, the number of premature mortalities associated with foreign aerosols in NA (mostly occurring in the U.S.) is comparable to the reduction in premature mortalities expected to result from tightening the U.S. 8-h O3 standard from 0.08 ppmv to 0.075 ppmv. International efforts to reduce inter-continental transport of fine aerosol pollution would substantially benefit public health on the Eurasian continent and would also benefit public health in the United States. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]