Ponmudi Climate Observatory

The Ponmudi Climate Observatory, situated on the Ponmudi hilltop of the Western Ghats in India, is equipped with state-of-the-art field instrumentation for studying aerosol and cloud microphysics. The high-altitude siting of the IIST-PCO on the windward side of the western ghats during the summer monsoon season and often within or beneath the cloud layer offers a natural laboratory for an improved understanding of aerosol-cloud processes.

About Ponmudi Climate Observatory

The IIST Ponmudi Climate Observatory (IIST-PCO) situated on the Ponmudi hilltop of the Western Ghats (PCO, 8.76°N, 77.12°E, 1.0 km AMSL) in India, is equipped with state-of-the-art field instrumentation for studying aerosol and cloud microphysics. The high-altitude siting of the IIST-PCO on the windward side of the western ghats during the summer monsoon season and often within or beneath the cloud layer, offers a natural laboratory for an improved understanding of aerosol-cloud processes in the atmosphere and their accurate representation in climate models using ground-based measurements.
Furthermore, in-house design and development of instrumentation for aerosol studies is a stronghold of IIST-PCO. The observatory is one of its kind in the country, with provisions for balloon-borne experiments in the frontiers of atmospheric science, astrobiology, and space technology development.

Research activities

The Ponmudi Climate Observatory is developed to provide quality-assured aerosol and cloud measurements for their accurate representation in climate models. Our primary research areas encompass:

• Monitoring and characterization of atmospheric aerosols.
• Source apportionment of aerosols
• Model development for assessing aerosol mixing state
• Aerosol's mixing state and its impact on aerosol-cloud interaction
• Impact on the boundary layer processes by aerosols
• Role of elevated aerosol layers on radiation budget
• Aerosol-cloud interaction

Research facilities

Aerosol instrumentation

• In-house designed common aerosol sampling inlet system with flow rate up to 38 LPM
• 6-stage high volume sampler
• 16-channel Optical Particle Sizer (OPS)
• Condensation particle counter
• 7-channel Aethalometer
• 3-channel Polar Integrating Nephelometer
• LIDAR ceilometer with polarization capability
• Sun photometer

Cloud microphysics

• Cloud Condensation Nuclei (CCN) Counter
• Micro Rain Radar (MRR)
• Disdrometer
• All sky imager

Meteorological instrumentation

• Surface radiation monitoring station
• Automatic weather station

Trace gas measurements

• Open Path CO2/H2O Gas Analyzer
• Closed Path CO2 Probe
• CO Analyzer

Balloon launch facility

• Rubber balloon of size 1200-3000 gm with payload carrying capacity of 6 kg up to an altitude of 35 km
• Tethered balloons of volume 9 m² capable of carrying 3 kg payload weight up to an altitude of about
  1 km.

Publications

1. Kumar, G., Madhavan, B. L., Sahu, L. K., Kumar, Y. B., Vernier, J.-P., Liu, H., B. Zhang , A. K. Pandit , R. K. Manchanda, V. K. Dadhwal, and P. R. Sinha(2023). Multi-year CALIPSO observations of ubiquitouselevated aerosol layer in the free troposphere over South Asia: Sources and formation mechanism. Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres,128, e2021JD036277.https://doi.org/10.1029/2021JD036277

2. Mohit Singh, Yutaka Kondo, Sho Ohata, Tatsuhiro Mori, Naga Oshima, Antti Hyvärinen, John Backman, Eija Asmi, Henri Servomaa, Franz Martin Schnaiter, Elisabeth Andrews, Sangeeta Sharma, Kostas Eleftheriadis, Stergios Vratolis, Yongjing Zhao, Makoto Koike, Nobuhiro Moteki & P. R. Sinha (2024): Mass absorption cross section of black carbon for Aethalometer in the Arctic, Aerosol Science and Technology, DOI: 10.1080/02786826.2024.2316173. https://doi.org/10.1080/02786826.2024.2316173

Ponmudi Climate Observatory Brochure Download

Software
AeroMix

AeroMix, a Python-based aerosol optical model, was developed to address the complex nature of aerosol mixing state. In contrast to the widely used OPAC model, AeroMix introduces enhanced capabilities such as
1. Model complex aerosol mixtures, including externally and core-shell mixed aerosols, with any number of components.
2. Flexibility to use multiple aerosol databases.
3. Define aerosol components by mass concentration, complementing the existing number concentration option.
4. Specify aerosol component concentrations and relative humidity in each layer (up to six vertical layers), enabling the modeling of elevated aerosol layers.
AeroMix provides a robust open-source framework for computationally intensive inversion algorithms to model aerosol properties.

Download

The Team

Dr P R Sinha
Associate Professor
[email protected]

Sam P Raj
PhD scholar
[email protected]

Aakash Kumar
PhD scholar
[email protected]

Alex Kumar Singh
PhD scholar
[email protected]

Ajayakumar B R
Technical assistant

News

Contact Us

PCO encourages research proposals from around the globe and offers the hosting of instrumentation for aerosols, clouds, and gaseous measurements. Our commitment extends to fostering collaborations between academia and industry, aiming to stimulate cooperation and create impactful science and technology partnerships.

Dr P R Sinha
Department of Earth and Space Sciences
Indian Institute of Space Science and Technology (IIST)
Valiamala P.O.Thiruvananthapuram-695 547, India
Phone No. (Off): +91-471-2568523
Phone No. (Mob): +91 9490422829
e-mail id: [email protected]

For more queries, Please call
Phone: +91-471-2568713