| dc.description.abstract | The Republic of Kazakhstan, by geographical and climatological conditions, is a key location for the characterization of atmospheric aerosols due to an unprecedented increase of aerosol's concentrations in the recent years. This study presents a 13-year (2003-2015) analysis of the spatiotemporal distributions and trends of aerosol and cloud properties derived from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS)–Aqua (Dark Target–DT) and Ozone Monitoring Instrument (OMI) over Kazakhstan. The spatial patterns of annual mean AOD were generally characterized with low (<0.1), moderate (0.1–0.5) and high (>035) AOD centers over Kazakhstan. The respective maximum and minimum values of AOD550 were observed in July (0.22 ± 0.07) and November (0.12 ± 0.03), with an annual mean of 0.18 ± 0.03. The seasonal mean values of AOD was noticed to be maximum (0.21 ± 0.02) during summer and minimum (0.14 ± 0.01) during autumn seasons. The inter-annual variations in AOD showed enhanced AOD values during 2012 (0.23) followed by 2014 (0.21) and low during 2003 (0.15) and 2004 (0.14). The spatial trend analysis revealed an increase in AOD over most parts of the study domain. Also, the most important cloud parameters such as cloud fraction (CF) and cloud effective radius (CER) were investigated to assess their relationship with the AOD over Kazakhstan. It was found that the CF and CER were negatively and positively correlated with AOD over most parts of the study domain attributed to the strong influence of dust and continental background aerosols, respectively. The backward trajectories obtained from the Hybrid Single Particle Lagrangian Integrated Trajectory (HYSPLIT) model showed air parcels originating from the Barents Sea, Russia, Europe, China, and the mainland of Kazakhstan. The results derived from the present study gives a sense of aerosol and cloud properties, and form a basis for further research over this unique and unexplored landmass of the Asian Continent. | en_US |
