Monitoring Ambient Air Quality in Indian NCAP City Airsheds

In this SIM-air Working Paper Series # 40-2021, we defined (a) the size of NCAP city airsheds (b) the recommended number of ambient air quality monitoring sites in an airshed (c) the operational sampling frequency to support receptor-based source apportionment studies. These resources are necessary for strengthening the monitoring needs of an airshed to track pollution levels, to conduct receptor-model-based source apportionment studies, and to support long-term air quality management plans.
[Download the full document]
[Download grid & airshed information by city]
[More supporting material is posted here]

SIM-air Series #55-2024: Value of Statistical Life (VSL) to support cost-benefit analysis of India’s air quality management

Direct Article Link or click on the image below.

SIM-air Series #54-2024: Understanding Delhi’s Diwali Emission Loads

Direct Article Link or click on the image below.

SIM-air Series #53-2024: Overhauling India’s pollution under control (PUC) tests for multipurpose emissions information

Direct Article Link or click on the image below.

SIM-air Series #52-2024: Beginners handbook on assembling air pollution models

Direct Article Link or click on the image below.

Journal Article - Willingness to pay to reduce mortality risks from particulate matter and value of statistical life: Evidence from stated air purifier rental choices in South Korea

Direct Article Link

Journal Article - Four years of National Clean Air Programme (NCAP) in Indian cities: Assessment of the impact on surface ozone during the period 2018–2022

Direct Article Link

Journal Article - Comparative ozone production sensitivity to NOx and VOCs in Quito, Ecuador and Santiago, Chile: implications for control strategies in times of climate action

Direct Article Link

Journal Article - How does air quality reflect the land cover changes: remote sensing approach using Sentinel data

Direct Article Link or click on the image below.

Op-Ed - Shifts in Shopping: Transforming Malls Into Parks

Direct Article Link or click on the image below.

Op-Ed - Gas Could Mean Billions for Indigenous People in Canada. Some Fear a Cost

Direct Article Link or click on the image below.

Op-Ed - CO2 emissions from new North Sea drilling sites would match 30 years’ worth from UK households

Direct Article Link or click on the image below.

Op-Ed - How Feminism Can Guide Climate Change Action

Direct Article Link or click on the image below.

Op-Ed - A study of 11,000 twins shows how to make America walkable again

Direct Article Link or click on the image below.

Resource Material - Air Quality Modelling Tools and Emission Calculators

Click here or on the image to access calculators, tools, and support information for emissions and pollution modelling 

Journal Article - Northern India and Pakistan are yet again engulfed in a haze of pollution — but a lasting solution is possible

Direct Article Link or click on the image below.

Journal Article - Modeling the Global Impact of Chlorine Chemistry on Secondary Organic Aerosols

Direct Article Link or click on the image below.

Journal Article - Saharan dust linked to European hail events

Direct Article Link

Journal Article - Running on Fumes: An Analysis of Fine Particulate Matter’s Impact on Finish Times in Nine Major US Marathons, 2003–2019

Direct Article Link or click on the image below.

Op-Ed - India to surpass China as the top source of global oil consumption growth in 2024 and 2025

Direct Article Link or click on the image below.

Video (Hindi) - Delhi's Air is Killing You -- Lung Health Expert: Air Pollution, Vape, Lung Cancer, Passive Smoking & Exercise

Op-Ed - Carbon emissions from tourism are rising disproportionately fast

Direct Article Link or click on the image below.

Op-Ed - Spending Christmas with ‘Dr. Doom’

Direct Article Link or click on the image below.

Resource Material - Planetizen’s Top Urban Planning Books of 2024

Direct Article Link or click on the image below.

Op-Ed - Over 5,600 wood burning complaints led to just four fines

Direct Article Link or click on the image below.

Op-Ed - Cambodia urged to rethink its costly LNG ambitions

Direct Article Link or click on the image below.

Video - The role of biomass in production of cement, and iron and steel

Book - Air Quality - Science, Impacts, and Management

Direct Article Link or click on the image below.

Journal Article - Global Burden of Disease from Environmental Factors

Direct Article Link

Journal Article - Tropospheric ozone trends and attributions over East and Southeast Asia in 1995–2019: An integrated assessment

Direct Article Link

Accumulated Rainfall (Precipitation) in the last 24 hours - Gridded Daily Totals from Indian Meteorological Department

This image is sourced from Dr. Robbie Andrew @ CECIRO

Visit all India meteorology and air quality forecasts for wind speeds, wind directions, surface temperatures, ground-level temperature, and mixing heights. Updated everyday around 7PM IST.

Precipitation (rainfall) and 2m-Temperature forecast for the next 3-days (India and the Sub-Continent)

For details visit All India meteorology and air quality forecasts. Other parameters include wind speeds, wind directions, surface temperatures, ground-level temperature, and mixing heights. Updated everyday around 7PM IST.

Data Resource - Climate Trends - CO2 Concentrations (Weekly summary of data from Mauna Loa)

This image is sourced from Dr. Robbie Andrew @ CECIRO

Data Resource - Climate Trends - Global Monthly Mean N2O Concentrations

Direct Article Link or click on the image below.

Data Resource - Climate Trends - Monthly Mean CO2 Concentrations @ Mauna Loa Observatory

Direct Article Link or click on the image below.

Data Resource - Climate Trends - Daily Surface Air Temperature (World - ECMWF Reanalysis ERA5)

Direct Article Link or click on the image below.

Data Resource - Climate Trends - Global Methane Monthly Means

Direct Article Link or click on the image below.

Journal Article - Response of South Asia PM2.5 pollution to ammonia emission changes and associated impacts on human health

Direct Article Link or click on the image below.

Journal Article - Fixing Bangladesh's power sector

Direct Article Link

Journal Article - Mountain of coal at U.S. power plants a new threat to coal industry

Direct Article Link or click on the image below.

Op-Ed - The clean energy transition is an economic imperative for Japan’s new government

Direct Article Link or click on the image below.

Op-Ed - Prioritising methane abatement makes economic sense

Direct Article Link or click on the image below.

Journal Article - AI weatherman: the DeepMind researcher making faster, more accurate forecasts

Direct Article Link or click on the image below.

Resource Material - Bending the Curve: Climate Education for All

Journal Article - To spur climate action, educators must get personal

Direct Article Link

Journal Article - Relay Transport of Ozone Due To Urbanization-Modified Thermal Circulations During Tropical Cyclones

Direct Article Link

Journal Article - Short-Lived Air Pollutants and Climate Forcers Through the Lens of the COVID-19 Pandemic

Direct Article Link

Journal Article - Towards a Sustainable Growth of the Shipping Sector—A Systematic Review of Future Shipping Emissions Scenarios

Direct Article Link

Journal Article - Equations to Predict Carbon Monoxide Emissions from Amazon Rainforest Fires

Direct Article Link or click on the image below.

Journal Article - The benefits of removing toxic chemicals from plastics

Direct Article Link

Op-Ed - How the UK plans to reach clean power by 2030

Direct Article Link or click on the image below.

Car Culture - Cars in Australian cities are emitting less – but in the regions exhaust emissions are growing

Direct Article Link or click on the image below.

Health Impacts - New research links sulfur dioxide pollution with depression

Direct Article Link or click on the image below.

Op-Ed - Insurers Are Deserting Homeowners as Climate Shocks Worsen

Direct Article Link or click on the image below.

Humor in Pollution - No packing necessary — Japan Airlines’ pushes ‘rental clothes’ to travelers at their destination

Direct Article Link or click on the image below.

Op-Ed - Pakistan and Bahamas join push for global pact to phase out fossil fuels

Direct Article Link or click on the image below.

Journal Article - To Monitor Greenhouse Gas Emissions Nationwide, U.S. Enlists Passenger Plane

Direct Article Link or click on the image below.

Op-Ed - LISTEN: Reflections on the first five years of the Agents of Change program

Direct Article Link or click on the image below.

Op-Ed - Alert fatigue: The phrase that defined our climate in 2024

Direct Article Link or click on the image below.

Humor in Pollution - How Delhi Copes with the Air Crisis

Direct Article Link or click on the image below.

Video - Air Quality Pollutants and Analysis Tools (Presentation)

Precipitation (rainfall) forecasts for the next 3 days - Chennai, India

For details visit City-level meteorology and air quality forecasts. Other parameters include wind speeds, wind directions, surface temperatures, ground-level temperature, and mixing heights. Updated everyday around 7PM IST.

Precipitation (rainfall) forecasts for the next 3 days - Goa, India

For details visit City-level meteorology and air quality forecasts. Other parameters include wind speeds, wind directions, surface temperatures, ground-level temperature, and mixing heights. Updated everyday around 7PM IST.

Can We Benefit from Blaming Meteorology for Air Pollution Problems?

Mathematics relates to the “quantification” of the problem. Pollution (in the units of μg/m3) is defined as mass over volume, where mass is the emission load and volume is the amount of air present.

   

In the summer months, a higher volume of air means more room for lateral and vertical mixing, and vice versa for the winter months. For the same amount of emissions in all the months, concentrations are bound to be higher in the winter months and lower in the summer months. For “clean air” and lower concentrations, the requirement is either higher inversion layer height or lower emissions. It is next to impossible to alter meteorology; however, reducing emissions should be relatively easy. The infograph below is from "ABC's of Air Quality".

 

A rendition of Einstein's equation of relativity E=mc2 is for our case is below. Using this equation in a box model or a more complicated version (like an Eulerian equation) in an advanced chemical transport model, we can simulate the influence of the meteorological parameters on local air quality, but that doesn't solve the air pollution problem. We cannot control the wind speeds, wind directions, precipitation rates, or the mixing heights. The only logical way to reduce the right hand side is by altering the emissions on the left side (which will automatically alter the chemistry).

 

Basic mathematics, physics, and chemistry of air pollution are explained in this publication "Can We Vacuum Our Air Pollution Problem Using Smog Towers?" Box model to study pollution dynamics is available as part of our sim-air family of tools. An older poster on meteorology vs pollution is available here and more similar inforgraphics are available here.