Atmospheric aerosols play an important role in earth’s atmosphere dynamics and in climate. A major aerosol hotspot over the globe is the Indo-Gangetic Plains, where population density, extensive urbanization and industrialization, traffic and domestic emissions, and dust storms from Thar, along with uncontrolled agricultural burning and forest fires, create a dense cloud of aerosols that highly impact the Himalayan ecosystems and cryosphere. This mixture of various aerosol sources affects the Himalayan foothills, i.e., Nainital, all year round, while local and regional meteorology plays an important role in aerosol accumulation or dispersion. In this talk, some important features of aerosol properties and types will be presented in Nainital and in the Himalayan foothills, as well as the effect of the plains on aerosol loading, types, and mixture states. The dust effect from the Thar desert, especially in pre-monsoon, is also an issue that deserves further investigation.
Dr. Dimitris Kaskaoutis holds a bachelor degree in Physics and a PhD in Atmospheric Physics from the University of Ioannina, Greece in 2009. In 2011 he was visitor Professor at Sharda University, Greater Noida and from 2013 to 2016 he served as Assistant Professor at Shiv Nadar University, Greater Noida, India. At the present, he is Assistant Professor at the Chemical Engineering Department, University of Western Macedonia, Greece and collaborative scientist at National Observatory of Athens and the Cyprus Institute. He has been working in Atmospheric Physics, meteorology, climatology, dust dynamics, carbonaceous aerosols and biomass burning for 20 years, mostly emphasizing on aerosol optical, physical and chemical properties over climatic sensitive areas. He has published 210 papers in scientific journals with more than 12500 citations, he has more than 120 presentations in National and International conferences, 9 Book Chapters and he has served as reviewer in 148 scientific journals. He has participated in several research projects in Greece and abroad related to atmospheric aerosol properties and climate implications.