Air pollution has emerged as a major environmental challenge in Indian cities and across the states. Complexity of the problem is due to multiplicity of emission sources, such as, industries, automobiles, generator sets, domestic fuel burning, road side dusts, construction activities, etc and a vibrant meteorology across climatic zones. Our India air quality forecasting system interjects contributions of pollution for national, regional and urban areas, to better support a long-term air quality management plan and a short-term health alert system. Various products from the forecasting system include
PM2.5
PM10
SO2
NO2
CO
Hourly Anime
Fire Counts
Dust Stroms
Our forecasting system also includes a high-resolution medium-range meteorological system for the next 72-hours, processed through 3D-WRF meteorological model and the GFS meteorological fields . The modeling domain covers the Indian subcontinent at a temporal resolution of 1 hour. All the simulation fields are updated everyday at ~17:00 local time.
Rain
Temp (day)
Temp (night)
Winds (day)
Winds (night)
Met Anime
72-hr animations for surface wind speeds and direction, precipitation, surface temperature, and mixing layer height
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WRF model simulated summary of these meteorological parameters by district for the year 2015, is available for browsing and downloading here.
Data above is from stations operated and maintained by the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) and the State Pollution Control Boards. All the data is available on CPCB website. A secondary source to download archived data is @ openaq.org. The color code represents the Air Quality Index (AQI) scales of India. More on the air quality monitoring in India is here.
PM2.5 forecasts by State Forecasts (browse here)
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Modeled PM2.5 source contributions by State (browse here)
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Reconstruction of meteorological fields dedicated to urban and regional scale dispersion modeling
- Comprehensive emission inventory of anthropogenic and natural sources, as urban and regional scales. The regional emissions inventory is maintained at 0.25° resolution covering the Indian sub-continent. The emission fields also include natural sources, such as dust storms, fires, sea salt, lighting activities, updated every day
- Simulation of air pollutants dispersion using the WRF-CAMx chemical transport model. The simulated results are available in multiple tiers
- Forecasts – daily (24 hour) average concentrations (maps)
- Forecasts – daily (24 hour) summaries by state – average PM2.5 concentrations (maps) and average source contributions (donuts)
- Forecasts – animations of hourly average concentrations (maps)
- Forecasts – hourly average concentrations for all the criteria pollutants by district (line graphs)
- Forecasts – hourly average modeled source contributions to PM2.5 concentrations by district (bar graphs)
An effective air quality management requires reliable information on ambient air pollution levels with substantial spatial and temporal coverage. Air quality data are generally available through air quality measurement campaigns; which is also an ideal database to statistically forecast pollution levels in the next 3-4 days, based on past experiences. However, this database is not enough to explain the highs and the lows, source contributions, and spatial patterns in the observed trends. As part of the forecasting system, we are able to cover this gap via emissions inventory development, dispersion modeling, and source apportionment.