Aim of the experiment: Measurement of Ozone, water vapor and aerosol optical thickness over Bopal using MICROTOPS

II Introduction: The MICROTOPS II is a hand-held multi-band sun photometer capable of measuring the total ozone column and aerosol optical thickness (AOT) in each band. Optionally the MICROTOPS II is capable of deriving the water vapor column. The instrument is equipped with five accurately aligned optical collimators, with a full field view of 2.5. Internal baffles are also integrated into the device to eliminate internal reflections. Each channel is fitted with a narrow-band interference filter and a photodiode suitable for the particular wavelength range. The collimators are encapsulated in a cast aluminum optical block for stability. A sun target and pointing assembly is permanently attached to the optical block and laser-aligned to ensure accurate alignment with the optical channels. When the image of the sun is centered in the bulls eye of the sun target, all optical channels are oriented directly at the solar disk. A small amount of circumsolar radiation is also captured, but it makes little contribution to the signal. Radiation captured by the collimator and band pass filters radiate onto the photodiodes, producing an electrical current that is proportional to the radiant power intercepted by the photodiodes. These signals are first amplified and then converted to the digital signal by a high resolution A/D converter .The signals from the photodiodes are processed in series. Shorter wavelength of UV radiation is much more readily absorbed by ozone than the larger wavelength in the same UV band width. This means that the amount of ozone between the observer and the sun is proportional to the two wavelength of the suns UV radiation. MICROTOPS II operates as a photometer and measures simultaneously direct solar UV radiation at three discrete wavelengths, 305.5 nm, 312.5 nm and 320 nm within UV-B range. AOT and water vapor column are determined assuming the validity of the Bouguer-Lambert-Beer law. The optical depth due to Rayleigh scattering is subtracted from the total optical depth to obtain AOT. Optical depth from other processes such as O3 and NO2 absorption are ignored in MICROTOPS II. The water vapor column is determined based on measurements at 936 nm (water absorption peak) and either 870 nm or 1020 nm (no absorption by water vapor).

Experiment: The MICROTPS II is used to measure the Ozone (O 3), Water vapor (WV) and Aerosol Optical Thickness (AOT) over Bopal (Ahmedabad). Here only two days (06/3/2013 and 07/3/2013) measurements are shown. 7 Mar,2013 6 Mar,2013 7Mar,2013 6Mar,2013 7 Mar,2013 6Mar,2013 Ozone (DU) Ozone (DU) WV WV AOT AOT 247.8 246.7 0.7 0.74 0.164 0.131 254.9 246.8 0.73 0.73 0.188 0.153 255.2 251.4 0.77 0.77 0.228 0.172 254.9 250.4 0.81 0.78 0.237 0.168 259.3 247.9 0.82 0.8 0.205 0.169 257.6 249.4 0.87 0.85 0.244 0.197 257.4 255.8 0.82 0.86 0.203 0.216 254.66 253.3 0.82 0.85 0.178 0.195 251.75 249.6 0.85 0.83 0.181 0.172

LT 9:00:00 10:00:00 11:00:00 12:00:00 13:00:00 14:00:00 15:00:00 16:00:00 17:00:00

Figure: 1: Diurnal variation of Ozone, Water vapor and Aerosol Optical Thickness over Bopal (Ahmadabad)

Results and Discussions: Figure: 1 shows the diurnal variation of ozone (O3), Water vapor and Aerosol Optical Thickness over Bopal (Ahmadabad). The maximum peak of ozone, WV and AOT for 6/3/2013 is observed at the same time around 15:00:00 hr (LT).On the other hand the maximum peak for ozone and AOT is different on 7/3/2013. Water vapor and AOT values shows maximum peak at the same time around 14:00:00. The ozone values over Bopal vary from 246 DU to 257 DU during daytime in these two observed days. Similarly AOT varies from 0.12 to 0.24 and water vapor from 0.70 to 0.87 during the above mentioned days. From this study we can conclude that ozone, water vapor and AOT shows day to day variability within same place. So for better understanding of these parameters long time observations are needed.