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
- Reconstruction of meteorological fields using the WRF system and also used for urban and regional scale chemical transport modeling 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 along with the WRF simulations.
- Simulation of air pollutants using the CAMx chemical transport model with outputs including
- daily (24 hour) average concentrations (maps)
- daily (24 hour) summaries by state – average PM2.5 concentrations (maps) and average source contributions (donuts)
- animations of hourly average concentrations (maps)
- hourly average concentrations for all the criteria pollutants by district (line graphs)
- hourly average modeled source contributions to PM2.5 concentrations by district (bar graphs)
A sample of the results are displayed below with more details in the individual pages.
PM2.5
24-hr average for Particulate Matter (less than 2.5 micron-m) (PM2.5)
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PM10
24-hr average for Particulate Matter (less than 10 micron-m) (PM10)
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SO2
24-hr average for Sulfur Dioxide (SO2)
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NO2
24-hr average for Nitrogen Dioxide (NO2)
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CO
24-hr average for Carbon Monoxide (CO)
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Hourly Anime
Animations of hourly concentration maps for the next 72 hours
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Fire Counts
24-hr Open fires map for the Indian Subcontinent (updated with VIIRS feed every 3 hours)
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Dust Stroms
Simulated Dust Storm Zones for the Next Three Days
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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. WRF model simulated summary of these meteorological parameters by district for the year 2015, is available for browsing and downloading here.
Rain
Total Precipitation – Daily
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Temp (day)
Average daytime near ground (2m) temperature
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Temp (night)
Average nighttime near ground (2m) temperature
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Winds (day)
Average daytime near surface (10m) winds
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Winds (night)
Average nighttime near surface (10m) winds
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Met Anime
72-hr animations for surface wind speeds and direction, precipitation, surface temperature, and mixing layer height
 hourly snaps |
 hourly snaps |
 hourly snaps |
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All India forecasting results are also summarized at the state level. A composite of the 30-large states is available here.
Modeled PM2.5 concentrations by State (browse here for forecast days)
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Modeled PM2.5 source contributions by State for Day 1 (browse here for forecast days)
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An interactive map of the (current) day average forecasts is presented below. Use the search box to locate a city or a district in the region. Hovering over the district will display the (forecast) modeled day average concentrations.