Winter Worsens Delhi's Pollution Levels

Blame games are beginning to creep up in the media, with no real action for the past one year.

See the article @ Mail Today
See the article @ Financial Express
See the article @ India Live Today

Wind are slowing down - see nighttime and daytime forecasts for the next three days.
Temperature are dropping, triggering the need for space heating - see nighttime and daytime forecasts for the next three days.

This is modeled source contributions to the ambient particulate pollution (PM2.5) in South Delhi district (one of the 14 districts in the National Capital Region (NCR) of Delhi). The calculations are conducted in forecast mode. More NCR district reports @ Delhi Air Quality.Info

• DUST.ERO = wind blown dust from the dry and arid regions, dependent of hourly meteorological conditions
• OPEN.FIRES = open biomass burning (both agricultural lands and forest areas), a seasonal affair linked to dry conditions and agricultural clearing patterns
• TRANS.PASS = contribution of passenger vehicles (2Ws, 3Ws, 4Ws, Taxis, and Buses)
  
• TRANS.FRGT = contribution of freight vehicles (heavy and light trucks, and non-road vehicles)
• RD.DUST = contribution of re-suspended dust on the roads due to vehicle movement and construction activities
• PP.DGS = contribution of power plants and in-situ diesel generator sets
• INDUS = contribution of industrial activities
• HOUS.HLD = contribution of domestic cooking, space heating, water heating, and lighting
• WST.BURN = contribution of open waste burning
• OTHERS = contribution of aviation, shipping, biogenics, etc..

A number of source apportionment studies were conducted in Delhi (more in Delhi than in any of the other Indian cities). We summarized the known particulate pollution source apportionment studies, as an open article, "what's polluting Delhi's air".

See what is happening at the regional scale, which is conducted as part of the all India air pollution forecasting program, hosted @ http://www.indiaairquality.info. The animation below is from a WRF-CAMx simulation conducted @ 0.25x0.25 degree resolution (approximately, 25km x 25km).