Preface

Climate change has great significance in Asia in general, and India in particular due to its diverse geographical features and high population density. It is now well known that atmospheric aerosols have a decisive role in perturbing regional and global climate. Ground-based and satellite-borne measurements have shown that the Indo-Gangetic Plains (IGP), which extends from western desert, across the plains and over to the Bay of Bengal and one of the densely populated and rapidly developing regions of the subcontinent, has some of the highest and persistent aerosol optical depths (AOD)/loading, especially during the dry winter and pre-monsoon seasons.