10th International Aerosol Conference September 2 - September 7, 2018 America's Center Convention Complex St. Louis, Missouri, USA
Abstract View
Challenges of Air Quality Monitoring and Forecasting in Different Mega City Environments
G. BEIG, IITM, Pune, India
Abstract Number: 1705 Working Group: Air Quality in Megacities: from Sources to Control
Abstract The “System of Air Quality and Weather Forecasting And Research (SAFAR)” was launched in 2010 as a pilot project of GURME of WMO for Indian Metro cities. It has now been implemented in 4 metro cities, namely, Delhi, Pune, Mumbai and Ahmedabad. The SAFAR provides location specific information on air quality in near real time and its forecast along with weather information. There are 4 basic components of SAFAR: Air pollutant and weather Observational Network, Emission Inventory, Forecasting Model, and Communication to Society. The distribution of the major pollutants ozone (O3), oxides of Nitrogen (NOx), Carbon monoxide (CO), Benzene, PM10, and PM2.5 has been studied in detail and their forecasting skill is tested. The major challenge in Indian mega cities is particulate pollution and not the gaseous pollutants. Each city has dense observational network on 10 locations. Scientific evaluation of the data generated from AQMS and WRF-Chem provides a basis to understand the air quality status. However, each city has different challenges. While Pune’s forecast has smooth sailing, Delhi forecast is posing challenges on each passing day. The frequencies of extreme pollution events are on rise in Mega cities like Delhi and system requires vigilant eye on hourly basis. The air quality of the Bombay region is highly influenced by sea breeze being a coastal station. This paper will address issues and challenges in predicting the air quality in different microenvironments of different mega cities.