Neelam Malap

• Researcher at Savitribai Phule Pune University

Convective clouds are ubiquitous over the tropics and midlatitudes, and they are part of aggregated convection. The convection is initially driven by the boundary layer eddies and the fair-weather cumulus, which gets favored by the vertical ascent. The deep convective clouds in the Indian monsoon environment, as inferred from the in situ measuremen...

The accurate representation of mixed-phase monsoon clouds and their phase distribution is of great importance for numerical models used to predict monsoon rainfall. Therefore, it is essential for these models to correctly capture the phase fraction of clouds, which includes the proportions of liquid and ice. Ice particle formation in clouds occurs...

The diurnal cycle of environmental conditions for shallow and deep convection regimes within the Indian monsoon environment is investigated using comprehensive observations from the surface, boundary layer, and cloud layers. For shallow convection (SC) and deep convection (DC) in the afternoon hours, thermodynamics, moisture convergence, and severa...

In this study, we investigated the aerosol radiative forcing (ARF) using ground-based measurements of PM2.5 and black carbon aerosols at a semi-arid, rain shadow location, Solapur in peninsular India. It is observed that aerosols caused a net cooling effect at top of the atmosphere (TOP) indicating that the aerosols reflect more solar radiation bac...

Cloud seeding experiments for modifying clouds and precipitation have been underway for nearly a century; yet practically all the attempts to link precipitation enhancement or suppression to the presence of seeding materials within clouds remain elusive. In 2019, the Cloud–Aerosol Interaction and Precipitation Enhancement Experiment (CAIPEEX) inves...

The demand for effective methods to augment precipitation over arid regions of India has been increasing over the past several decades as the changing climate brings warmer average temperatures. In the fourth phase of the Cloud Aerosol Interaction and Precipitation Enhancement Experiment (CAIPEEX-IV), a scientific investigation was conducted over a...

The quantification of turbulence across the entire atmospheric boundary layer (ABL) is relatively rare compared to the surface layer. In this study we investigate the variation in profiles of vertical velocity variance, wind shear and eddy dissipation rate (ε) across the ABL in context with the dryline event over rain shadow region of the Western G...

Cloud seeding experiments for modifying cloud and precipitation have been underway for nearly a century; yet practically all the attempts to link precipitation enhancement or suppression to the presence of seeding materials remained inclusive. In 2019, the Cloud-Aerosol Interaction and Precipitation Enhancement Experiment (CAIPEEX) implemented a no...

Cloud seeding experiments were conducted during the Cloud Interaction and Precipitation Enhancement Experiment (CAIPEEX) near Hyderabad, India, in 2011. Here, we report both the background aerosol and hygroscopic flare size distributions measured during the airborne experiment. The size distributions were measured in the diameter (D) range of 0.02–...

This paper reports the chemistry of fine (PM2.5) and coarse (PM10) aerosols sampled over a period of three years during 2018–2021 at a semi -arid tropical location in the rain shadow region of the peninsular India. The data is classified in to dry (December to May) and wet (June to November) periods. Scavenging effect due to rains have culminated i...

In the present study, a conventional mixing line analysis is applied to the Indian post monsoon boundary layer, characterized by shallow clouds. Characteristics of a ‘double mixing line’ are investigated with airborne observations and large eddy simulations (LES). The unique aspect of the study is the use of cloud microphysical information together...

A dryline is the zone of distinct moisture gradient separating warm, moist, and hot, dry air masses. It is usually associated with mesoscale phenomena and plays a significant role in atmospheric boundary layer (ABL) dynamics including initiation of convection/thunderstorms. In the tropical Indian region, these dryline conditions are normally associ...

The properties of carbonaceous aerosols at the rain-shadow region of the Western Ghats of India are studied as part of the Cloud Aerosol Interaction Precipitation Enhancement Experiment (CAIPEEX) during the Indian summer monsoon using optical and thermal methods. The optically derived black carbon (BC) and thermally derived elemental carbon (EC) co...

Characteristics of moisture transport associated with a monsoon depression (MD) formed over the Bay of Bengal and later moved westward over central India are presented. The investigation is carried out mainly using the Weather Research and Forecast (WRF) cloud resolving model simulations and the vertically integrated water vapor transport (IVT) to...

The high-resolution (1 km) forecasts are evaluated during the Cloud Aerosol Interaction and Precipitation Enhancement Experiment. The rainfall observations from a network of rain gauge stations and at high spatial resolution are used for verification purposes. Observed variations in the daily rainfall were adequately reproduced by the model. Severa...

General Circulation Models (GCMs) have for decades exhibited difficulties in modelling the diurnal cycle of precipitation (DCP). This issue can be related to inappropriate representation of the processes controlling sub‐diurnal phenomena like convection. In this study, 11 single‐column versions of GCMs are used to investigate the interactions betwe...

Hygroscopic growth factor and cloud condensation nuclei (CCN) activation properties of aerosols along with their physical and absorption properties were measured during the Cloud Aerosol Interaction and Precipitation Enhancement Experiment over a rain-shadow region, Solapur, India. The hygroscopicity of aerosols at both sub-and supersaturated regim...

Plain Language Summary Different clouds produce raindrops of various sizes in different concentrations. Therefore, we classified ground‐based measurements of raindrop sizes to study the rainfall characteristics during the monsoon. Generally, raindrops grow inside the cloud as they collide and combine with smaller drops, and break when they collide...

Large-scale transport of air mass modulates the weather by altering the cloud and precipitation microphysics of convective clouds. This study examines how oceanic and continental air mass advected into the convective cloud system determines hydrometeors' vertical distribution using in situ airborne observations from the Cloud-Aerosol Interaction an...

Continuous measurements of absorbing carbonaceous aerosol termed as black carbon (BC) have been carried out during April 2017 to March 2018 over Solapur, a semi-arid, rain shadow location in Peninsular India using a multi-wavelength Aethalometer (AE-33). Statistically significant higher values of BC were observed during the dry period (December–May...

An attempt is made to connect the moisture present above the boundary layer and its association with the cloud development and boundary layer turbulence using Large Eddy Simulation (LES) and aircraft observations. The dry boundary layer (BL) with shallow clouds observed during Cloud-Aerosol Interaction and Precipitation Enhancement Experiment (CAIP...

The thermodynamic characteristics of the atmosphere during the pre-monsoon thunderstorm period and the transition phase from pre-monsoon to monsoon period over the gateway of Indian summer monsoon is investigated in this study. The study utilizes Stratosphere-Troposphere (ST) wind profiling Radar, Microwave Radiometer, and GPS radiosonde observatio...

This study reports on new particle formation and characteristic features observed from a rural site falling in the rainshadow of the Western Ghats in southwest India. A total of 35 events were identified, classified, and analyzed from six months (August 2018 - January 2019) of observations. The apparent formation rates ranged from 0.2 - 10.0 cm⁻³ s...

Continuous aerosol and cloud condensation nuclei (CCN) measurements carried out at the ground observational facility situated in the rain-shadow region of the Indian subcontinent are illustrated. These observations were part of the Cloud Aerosol Interaction Precipitation Enhancement Experiment (CAIPEEX) during the Indian summer monsoon season (June...

Unique observational features of a convective cluster, occurred on 12-Sept-2015, over the rain shadow region in the leeward side of Western Ghats have been presented in this study. The synoptic environment had preconditioned the formation of a convergence zone over the study area. Moisture transport from the Arabian Sea was responsible for the mois...

An extreme rainfall event that made major calamity over the Indian peninsula region has been investigated with a focus on the physics of the cloud system as indicated from the multi-satellite observations, ground-based radar, and model forecast experiments. The vertical structure of clouds showed deep convective cores embedded in the stratiform and...

Continuous aerosol and Cloud Condensation Nuclei (CCN) measurements carried out at the ground observational facility situated in the rain-shadow region of the Indian sub-continent are illustrated. These observations were part of the Cloud-Aerosol Interaction Precipitation Enhancement EXperiment (CAIPEEX) during the Indian Summer Monsoon season (Jun...

Influence of the environmental thermodynamics on the microphysics of deep cumulus clouds over different parts of India is studied using in situ airborne observations from the Cloud Aerosol Interaction and Precipitation Enhancement EXperiment (CAIPEEX) during 2009. This study provides an understanding of the thermodynamics–microphysics relation over...

Thermodynamic soundings for pre-monsoon and monsoon seasons from the Indian subcontinent are analysed to document differences between convective environments. The pre-monsoon environment features more variability for both near-surface moisture and free-tropospheric temperature and moisture profiles. As a result, the level of neutral buoyancy (LNB)...

Thermodynamic soundings for premonsoon and monsoon seasons from the Indian subcontinent are analyzed to document differences between convective environments. Pre-monsoon environment features more variability for both near surface moisture and free-tropospheric temperature and moisture profiles. As a result, level of neutral buoyancy (LNB) and pseud...

Based on the precipitable water observations easily available from in situ and remote sensing sensors, a simple approach to define the lifting condensation level (LCL) is proposed in this study. High-resolution radiosonde and microwave radiometer observations over peninsular Indian region during the Cloud Aerosol Interaction and Precipitation Enhan...

The diurnal cycle of convective storm events is investigated in the study with the help of C-band radar reflec-tivity data during the Cloud Aerosol Interaction and Precipitation Enhancement Experiment (CAIPEEX 2011) in combination with other ground-based observations. A threshold reflectivity of 25 dBZ is used to identify the initiation of storms....

The thermodynamical and microphysical response during the transition from southwest to northeast monsoon season is studied. Unique mixed phase cloud observations from the Cloud Aerosol Interaction and Precipitation Enhancement Experiment (CAIPEEX) and ground based observations from Integrated Ground Observation Campaign (IGOC), high resolution (3 k...