An extensive, multi institutional, multi instrumental and multi-platform field experiment ‘Integrated Campaign Aerosols, gases and Radiation Budget (ICARB) was carried out. The objective this Campaign ever conducted in the Indian region was to characterize the physico-chemical properties and radiative effects of the aerosols and trace gases over the Indian landmass and the adjoining oceanic regions of the Arabian Sea, Northern Indian Ocean, and Bay of Bengal. The temporal variations of aerosol optical depth, near surface aerosol mass size distributions and BC mass concentrations show significantly higher aerosol optical depth and near surface mass concentrations during the first and last weeks of April 2007. The mean BC mass fraction in the fine mode aerosol was around of 11 %. A comparison of the temporal variation of the Aerosol properties at Visakhapatnam with the MODIS derived aerosol optical depth along the cruise locations indicate a significant coincidence suggesting that the aerosol transport from the eastern coastal regions of the peninsular India plays an important role on the observed spatial variation in the aerosol optical depths over the near coastal oceanic regions of Bay of Bengal.
