Title: A meteorological discourse on extreme storm events driven by Asian slum emissions

Authors: Sat Ghosh; Alan Gadian; Steve Dobbie; Arkayan Samaddar; Anuj Sharma; Pranav Chandramouli; Aditi Palsapure

Addresses: School of Mechanical Engineering, VIT University, Vellore, Tamil Nadu, 632014, India; School of Earth and Environment, University of Leeds, Leeds LS2 9JT, UK ' Institute for Climate and Atmospheric Science, School of Earth and Environment, University of Leeds, Leeds, LS2 9JT, UK ' Institute for Climate and Atmospheric Science, School of Earth and Environment, University of Leeds, Leeds, LS2 9JT, UK ' Department of Meteorology and Atmospheric Science, Penn State College of Earth and Mineral Sciences, 412 Walker Building University Park, PA 16802, USA ' Department of Mechanical Engineering, Cranfield University, College Rd, Cranfield, Bedford MK43 0AL, UK ' Fluminance, IRISA/INRIA Rennes – Bretagne, Atlantique Campus, Universitaire de Beaulieu, 35042 Rennes cedex, France ' School of Civil Engineering, VIT University, Vellore, 632 014, India

Abstract: Increasingly the world over, climate modellers have suggested that local emissions may well affect cyclonic storms. The eastern coast of India, home to mega cities, is routinely battered by such storms over the period October to December. Additionally, these cities house millions of slum dwellers who cook their meals from unseasoned firewood yielding substantial amounts of biomass particles. These particles chemically age within a polluted air mass rendering them active as cloud condensation nuclei (CCN). This first study shows the genesis, progression and evolution of one such tropical disturbance, Hurricane Thane, which was modulated by these transient emissions, devastating the coast of Tamil Nadu on 30 December 2011. We show that auto-conversion rates converting cloud water to rain water are significantly altered by up to 12% with an increase of 20.5% in the cloud water amounts, when these effects are included

Keywords: aerosols and particles; cloud physics and chemistry; precipitation; urban pollution; regional air pollution.

DOI: 10.1504/IJEP.2019.103743

International Journal of Environment and Pollution, 2019 Vol.65 No.4, pp.280 - 292

Accepted: 14 Mar 2019
Published online: 26 Nov 2019 *

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