Total Column Ozone, Precipitable Water Content and Aerosol Optical Thickness Over Atigre Village, a Tropical Station: First Observations

In this paper, we report first-time observations of total column ozone (TCO), aerosol optical thickness (AOT) and precipitable water content (PWC) at five different wavelengths using compact, handheld, multichannel sun photometer (Microtops II ozonometer) at Atigre village (16.74°N latitude, 74.37°E longitude, 604 ms altitude above sea level). The three optical filters at wavelengths 305 nm, 312 nm and 320 nm are used to detect the TCO, while two optical filters 936 nm and 1020 nm are used to detect the PWC and AOT, respectively. We have been collecting data from September 1, 2017, and 122 days are selected from September 1, 2017, to December 31, 2017, to present as first observations of TCO, AOD and PWC. The mean values of TCO, AOT and PWC are found to be 261.2 (± 9.22) DU, 0.25 (± 0.04) and 1.98 (± 0.79) cm, respectively, during this period. The TCO measurements taken by the Microtops II ozonometer are compared with the ozone monitoring instrument satellite data over Atigre. We found that PWC and AOT values are negatively correlated (− 0.54) during monsoon season, while they show positive correlation (0.63) during other seasons with 90% significance level. The diurnal variation of TCO, PWC and AOT differ in monsoon and the post-monsoon season.