Aerosol particle size distributions along with their spatial and temporal variability are important for describing both direct and indirect radiative forcing. In this study, the variation of black carbon (BC) aerosols, total aerosol mass loading and aerosol optical depth (AOD) over an urban region of Hyderabad, south India, was analyzed for 3 consecutive years from 2003 to 2005. The AOD was measured using a handheld multichannel sun‐photometer at six wavelengths centered on 380, 440, 500, 675, 870 and 1020 nm and aerosol mass–size distribution was made using a quartz crystal microbalance (QCM) cascade impactor. In addition, satellite remote‐sensing data from nighttime DMSP‐OLS images were analyzed for inferring ancillary sources of aerosols. Results from temporal analysis (2004–2006) suggest that aerosol mass loading and BC mass concentration increased considerably over the 3‐year time‐period mainly due to increasing vehicular traffic from urban population growth. DMSP‐OLS nighttime images for different years suggested higher forest fire occurrences in the year 2004 compared to other years. The annual mean AOD at 550 nm from moderate resolution imaging spectroradiometer (MODIS) showed relatively high values during 2004. Copyright © 2007 Royal Meteorological Society