GW : Pollution in Himalayas could impact the monsoon cycle

According to the study of the researchers, the pollution arising from the countries like India, China, Nepal, & Pakistan, into the atmosphere can reach altitudes of nearly over 5000 m to the atmosphere. This can contribute to the climate there and the warming of atmosphere and most interestingly, this will be showing its potential effect on the south-east Asian monsoon cycle.

Researchers have also traced new kind of aerosol particles suspended in the atmosphere namely "ultrafine particles" at these heights.

The French-Italian team, whose studies were published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences this week (13 October), conducted a study of theirs in the Nepal's Khumbu Valley, at nearly about 5079 m height, for nearly 16 months, and gave their conclusions.

Hervé Venzac, from the Blaise Pascal University in France, who was the lead author, along with his entire team made an observation that, when pollutants from the plains of the himalayan countries like Nepal, meets the cleaner air of troposphere, they form the aerosol particles.

The Co-author, Paolo Laj, at the Joseph Fourier University, France, told SciDev.nt, "Aerosol particles emitted by burning processes absorb sunlight, causing warming of the lower atmosphere and thus contributing to global temperature rise to the same extent as major greenhouse gases."

The functioning of Monsoon relies on the temperature regulation along with the calculated production of warmth, and this is the only reason that there is a clear probability of the warmth on the himalayas affecting the South-East monsoon of Asia. If there is a continuous rise or fall in the atmospheric temperature, the monsoon cycles can be abruptly affected.

The findings and research of this team are expected to provide an understanding on the production of warmth and also enlighten the melting of the glaciers in these regions at a rapid pace.

Ngamindra Dahal, a hydrometeorologist at the National Trust for Nature Conservation, Nepal, said - "This study is remarkable as it can explain the phenomenon of the melting of glaciers that we have started to observe in the Himalayas."

This study was all about the aerosol formation at higher altitudes and that too in the form of long- term data analysis. Additionally, it reveals that the frequency of this formation is high.

"Though further study is necessary to find out what could be the exact source of the up-sloping pollutants, this research clearly shows how pollution can affect particle formation [at high altitudes] and hence climate change and the monsoon cycle in the region," says Laj.

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