Why the Indian Ocean?
The Indian subcontinent and surrounding nations are rich sources for many kinds of aerosols such as mineral dust of natural and anthropogenically influenced sources, nitrates from agricultural and traffic-related sources, sea salt, sulfate particles and organic aerosols due to: * gas-to-particle conversion of secondary oxidation products of organics emitted by the biosphere (vegetation, ocean); * emission from industrial sources and transport vehicles; * biomass burning (heating, cooking, shifting agriculture, agricultural waste burning) including optically and microphysically active carbonaceous aerosols; and * primary aerosols, i.e., soil dust and sea-salt.
