Govardhan Gaurav, Ambulkar Rupal, Kulkarni Santosh, Vishnoi Ashok, Yadav Prafull, Choudhury Begum Abida, Khare Manoj, Ghude Sachin D
Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology, Ministry of Earth Sciences, Pune, India.
National Center for Medium Range Weather Forecasting, Ministry of Earth Sciences, Noida, India.
Heliyon. 2023 Jun 2;9(6):e16939. doi: 10.1016/j.heliyon.2023.e16939. eCollection 2023 Jun.
Stubble-burning in northern India is an important source of atmospheric particulate matter (PM) and trace gases, which significantly impact local and regional climate, in addition to causing severe health risks. Scientific research on assessing the impact of these burnings on the air quality over Delhi is still relatively sparse. The present study analyzes the satellite-retrieved stubble-burning activities in the year 2021, using the MODIS active fire count data for Punjab and Haryana, and assesses the contribution of CO and PM from such biomass-burning activities to the pollution load in Delhi. The analysis suggests that the satellite-retrieved fire counts in Punjab and Haryana were the highest among the last five years (2016-2021). Further, we note that the stubble-burning fires in the year 2021 are delayed by ∼1 week compared to that in the year 2016. To quantify the contribution of the fires to the air pollution in Delhi, we use tagged tracers for CO and PM emissions from fire emissions in the regional air quality forecasting system. The modeling framework suggests a maximum daily mean contribution of the stubble-burning fires to the air pollution in Delhi in the months of October-November 2021 to be around 30-35%. We find that the contribution from stubble burning activities to the air quality in Delhi is maximum (minimum) during the turbulent hours of late morning to afternoon (calmer hours of evening to early morning). The quantification of this contribution is critical from the crop-residue and air-quality management perspective for policymakers in the source and the receptors regions, respectively.
印度北部的秸秆焚烧是大气颗粒物（PM）和微量气体的重要来源，除了会造成严重的健康风险外，还会对当地和区域气候产生重大影响。关于评估这些焚烧活动对德里空气质量影响的科学研究仍然相对较少。本研究利用旁遮普邦和哈里亚纳邦的中分辨率成像光谱仪（MODIS）热点计数数据，分析了2021年卫星反演的秸秆焚烧活动，并评估了此类生物质燃烧活动产生的一氧化碳（CO）和颗粒物对德里污染负荷的贡献。分析表明，旁遮普邦和哈里亚纳邦的卫星反演火灾计数是过去五年（2016 - 2021年）中最高的。此外，我们注意到，与2016年相比，2021年的秸秆焚烧火灾推迟了约1周。为了量化火灾对德里空气污染的贡献，我们在区域空气质量预测系统中使用标记示踪剂来追踪火灾排放产生的CO和颗粒物排放。该建模框架表明，2021年10月至11月期间，秸秆焚烧火灾对德里空气污染的最大日平均贡献约为30% - 35%。我们发现，秸秆焚烧活动对德里空气质量的贡献在上午晚些时候到下午的湍流时段最大（最小），而在傍晚到凌晨的平静时段最小。从作物秸秆和空气质量管理的角度来看，分别对源区和受体区的政策制定者而言，量化这种贡献至关重要。
