ABSTRACT
Fog has been believed to create numerous hazards, economic loss, and inconvenience to local inhabitants. Fog hinders visibility, causing financial losses in transportation delays and human loss in accidents. The purpose of the study was to understand the behavior of fog with respect to the climatology of areas prone to it and its relationship with other meteorological parameters and pollutants. Long-term climatology and time series analysis can be very useful in understanding the behavior of fog. In the case study discussed here, trend analysis and the autoregressive integrated moving average (ARIMA) model forecasting were performed for observations from 1970 to 2010 (40 years) to assess the climatology related to and the future trend of fog over the national capital region of the city of Ghaziabad. Furthermore, the study was elaborated and extended to the whole Indo–Gangetic Plain (IGP). The study found that there has been a significant positive trend over the decades in the frequency of fog over IGP. Additionally, the relationship of fog with aerosol optical depth (AOD) retrieved through the MODIS satellite shows a positive correlation in fog frequency. The results would show a new prospective for taking various proactive measures in better understanding the fog climatology.
