Effects of South Asian dust storm on air quality over the capital city of India

Abstract

In the present study, an intense unseasonal dust storm has been analyzed during third week of March 2012 from multi satellite datasets and from surface measurements over National Capital Region (NCR), Delhi. The intrusion of dust over study region has increased the MODIS Aerosol Optical Depth at 550 nm more than 1.0 whereas significant decrease in Angstrom Exponent (α) has been observed . Very high UV aerosol Index (> 2) over study location indicates the presence of UV absorbing aerosols . Fire activities are found to be negligible over the source region confirming the effect of dust storm. Strong southwesterly winds prevailed over northern Arabian Sea which trans ported the dust plume across the oceanic region towards Indian capital region. In-situ measurements of PM 2.5 and PM10, obtained from CPCB observational site over the IGI airport, NCR Delhi, showed abrupt increase on 20, 21 March. Eight hourly average concentration of the particulate matters less than 10 μm (PM10) is found to be ~990 μg/m3 and particulate matters less than 2.5 μm (PM2.5) is found to be ~900 μg/m3 over IGI Airport, NCR Delhi. These values are remarkably higher as compared to the daily National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS) i.e. 100 μg/m3 and 60 μg/m3 for PM10 and PM2.5 respectively. In addition, Vertical distribution of dust has been examined using CALIPSO observation. The layer of dust is found to be trapped within lower 3 km in altitude. The Potential Source Contribution Function (PSCF) modeling has been carried out to identify the specific source locations.