Ramanathan added that reduction in the amount of sunlight reaching the ocean surface can also have a detrimental effect on plant life that depends on photosynthesis, including plankton, which provides a key link to the entire marine food chain. Early results indicate that the aerosol pollutants play a dual role in that they have both warming and cooling effects. By acting as seeds for cloud condensation, they also produce an indirect cooling effect by increasing both the longevity and reflectivity of clouds. Nevertheless, the pollutants can also have a warming effect because they absorb a large amount of sunlight. The airborne particles over the northern Indian Ocean are dark because they contain large amounts of soot and other materials from incompletely burned fuels and wastes.
Dark aerosols lead to the increased absorption of solar radiation.
The next stage of the experiment will seek the rate at which air pollution is getting worse over the years. Scientists will continue an observation site in the Maldives Islands to monitor the air quality. Coordinating the Indian Ocean Experiment are the Center for Clouds, Chemistry and Climate at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography and a National Science Foundation Science and Technology Center at the University of California, San Diego.