Satellite analysis confirms rising temperatures and wind patterns are driving aerosol spikes across India, with a record high in 2022 following the historic lows of the COVID-19 lockdown.

Image: Graphical representation of dust and microbe transport. Credit: Authors, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2025.180981

New research reveals a distinct north-south divide in India's urban pollution patterns, showing how transported dust can paradoxically make some highly polluted cities appear cleaner than their surroundings.

Researchers from IIT Kanpur, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, USA, University of Hyderabad, and IIT Delhi have tried to understand how aerosols affect the Indian monsoon season.

Researchers from the Indian Institute of Tropical Meterology, Pune, study how carbonaceous aerosols affect the different layers of our atmosphere. They find that these aerosols can have far reaching effects like instabilities in the mid to upper troposphere, bringing about a change in the rainfall patterns and causing abnormal heating of the atmosphere through radiation