Investigation of Variability of Some Gaseous and Particulate Pollutants over Delhi, Northern India (28°40′N, 76°50′E)
Air pollution has become a serious concern these days as the pollutants added in the air have a great impact on human health and ecological environment. The pollutants like particulate matter that have a diameter less than 2.5 micrometer (PM2.5), nitrogen dioxide (NO2), ozone (O3) and sulphur dioxide (SO2) are mainly responsible for causing respiratory problems, asthma and heart and lung disorder. In the present study, data collected by the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) Delhi at Netaji Subhash Chander Institute of Technology
(NSIT) location, Dwarka, Delhi, Northern India for airborne particulate and gaseous pollutants PM2.5, NO2, O3 and SO2 during November 01, 2017 to June 30, 2018 have been used to investigate the correlation among these pollutants and meteorological variables such as temperature, relative humidity, rainfall, wind speed and mixing height. The meteorological data have been obtained from Indian Meteorological Department. It has been found that the meteorological variables play a major role in modulating the pollutant concentration. The PM2.5 is found to be positively correlated with temperature, relative humidity and rainfall, while negatively correlated with wind speed and mixing height in winter. In summer, PM2.5 is negatively correlated with temperature and mixing height while positively correlated with relative humidity, rainfall and wind speed. O3 is found to be positively correlated with temperature and negatively correlated with relative humidity, rainfall and mixing height in winter as well as in summer. The analysis reveals that the meteorological variables behave differently with O3 when compared with PM2.5, NO2 and SO2, respectively.
Chauhan, A., Powar, M., Kumar, R. and P.C. Joshi (2010). Assessment of ambient air quality status in urbanization, industrialization, and commercial centers of Uttarakhand (India). Journal of American Science, 6(9): 565-568.
Cohen, A.J,, Brauer, M., Burnett, R., Anderson, H.R., Frostad, J. and K. Estep (2017). Estimates and 25-year trends of the global burden of disease attributable to ambient air pollution: An analysis of data from the Global Burden of Diseases Study 2015. Lancet, 389(10082): 1907-1918.
Duenas, C., Fernandez, M.C., Canete, S., Carretero, J., and E. Liger (2002). Assessment of ozone variations and meteorological effects in an urban area in the Mediterranean Coast. The Science of Total Environment, 299(1-3): 97-113.
Dominick, D., Latif, M.T., Juahir, H., Aris, A.Z. and S.M. Zain (2012). An assessment of influence of meteorological factors on PM10 and NO2 at selected stations in Malaysia. Sustainable Environment Research, 22(5): 305-315.
Fusco, A.C. and Salby, M.L. (1999). Inter-annual variation of total ozone and their relationship to variation of planetary wave activities. Journal of Climate, 12: 1619-1629.
Giri, D., Krishna Murthy, V. and P.R. Adhikary (2008). The influence of meteorological conditions on PM10 concentrations in Kathmandu Valley. International Journal of Environmental Research, 2(1): 49-60.
Karar, K., Gupta, A.K., Kumar, A. and A.K. Biswas (2006). Seasonal variations of PM10 and TSP in residential and industrial sites in an urban area of Kolkata, India. Environmental Monitoring and Assessment, 118(1-3): 369-381.
Li, M., Tang, G., Huang, J., Liu, Z., An, J. and Y. Wang(2015). Characteristics of winter atmospheric mixing layer height in Beijing Tianjin-Hebei region and their relationship with the atmospheric pollution. Environmental Science, 36: 1935-1943.
Ramakrishna, K. and G. Beig (2018). Influence of meteorology on particulate matter (PM) and vice versa over two Indian metropolitan cities. The Open Journal of Antennas and Propagation, 7(3): 244-262.
Ramasamy, J., Kumaravel, B., Palanivelraja, S. and M.P. Chockalingam (2013). Influence of temperature, relative humidity and seasonal variability on ambient air quality in a coastal urban area. International Journal of Atmospheric Sciences, 2013: 264046, 7 pp.
Sharma, R.C. and N. Sharma (2016). Influence of some meteorological variables on PM10 and NOx in Gurgaon, Northern India. American Journal of Environmental Protection, 4(1): 1-6. doi: 10.12691/env-4-1-1.
Sharma, R.C. and N. Sharma (2018). Statistical investigation of effect of rainfall on gaseous pollutants in the atmosphere, Haryana state, Northern India. American Journal of Environmental Protection, 6(1): 14-21. doi: 10.12691/env-6-1-3.
Dave, R. and M. Aggarwal (2018). Preliminary ground based measurements of aerosol optical thickness over Udaipur,(Rajasthan), India. Journal of Indian Geophysical Union 2018, 22(4): 444-449.
Sharma, D.K., Rai, J., Israil, M. and P. Singh (2003). Summer variation of the atmospheric aerosol number concentration over Roorkee India. Journal of Atmospheric and Solar- Terrestrial Physics, 65: 1007-1019.
Soni, K., Singh, M., Singh G. and S. Agarwal (2014). Sodar mixing height estimates and air pollution characteristics over Delhi, a big city during spring and summer. Journal of Acoustical Society of India, 41(4): 196-199.
Tang, G., Zhu, X., Hu, B., Xin, J., Wang, L., Münkel, C., Mao, G. and Y. Wang (2015). Impact of emission controls on air quality in Beijing during APEC 2014: Lidar ceilometer observations. Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics, 15: 12667-12680, doi:10.5194/acp-15-12667.
Trivedi, D.K., Ali, K. and G. Beig (2014). Impact of meteorological parameters on the development of fine and coarse particles over Delhi. Science of the Total Environment, 478: 175-183. doi: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.
2014.01.101.
Yadav, R., Sahu, L.K., Jaaffery, S.N.A. and G. Beig (2017). Ambient particulate matter and carbon monoxide at an urban site of India: Influence of anthropogenic emissions and dust storms. Environmental Pollution, 225: 291-303.
Zaharim, A., Shaharuddin, M., Nor, M.J.M., Karim, O.A. and K. Sopian (2009). Relationships between airborne particulate matter and meteorological variables using non-decimated wavelet transform. European Journal of Scientific Research, 27(2): 308-312.
Zalakeviciute, R., Villada, J.L. and Y. Rybarczyk (2018). Contrasted effects of relative humidity and precipitation on urban PM2.5 pollutions in high elevation urban areas. Sustainability, 10(6): 2064. https://doi.org/10.3390/ su10062064