Air Quality Forecasting In Delhi

The air quality forecasting system for the National Capital Region (NCR) of Delhi is now operational and issuing daily reports to inform on the movement of the criteria pollutants in the city. The daily reports are updated @ 6 AM with forecasts for 48 hours. More details on the program @ air quality forecasting system for Delhi.

The forecasting system is supported by the meteorological model WRF and 3D Eulerian chemical transport models CHIMERE/FARM, utilizes a geo-referenced and time-profiled emissions inventory (segregated into multiple sectors) @ 1km x 1km resolution over the NCR region. The daily updates from the system include

Animations of hourly maps for the six criteria pollutant concentrations
Animations of hourly maps for the meteorological fields
Daily (24 hour) average concentrations for the six criteria pollutants
Air Quality Index (AQI) @ 37 locations in Delhi
Time series of pollutant concentrations @ select locations
Vertical profiles @ select locations (available up on request)
An interface with "google earth".

This page presents Air Quality Index, which expresses the degree of pollution on a scale of 0 to 500, irrespective of varying standards and units for each pollutants. This is calculated for select locations in Delhi (listed below) based on the daily (24 hour) average concentrations estimated at these locations. A background note on air quality index and applications across the world is available here. The methodology utilized for Delhi is tested and applied by many nations and cities and now customized to represent the national ambient air quality standards of India. An analysis of AQI and air quality trends, calculated using this methodology and the monitoring data across the city is available here.

Commonwealth Games venues - National stadium, Nehru stadium, Velodrome, Indira Gandhi stadium, Games Village, Karni shooting range, Jamia Millia Islamia Univ, Sirifort sports complex
Monitoring stations - ITO, Delhi college of engineering, CPCB, Janakpuri, Nizamuddin
Other select points - Airport, AIIMS hospital, Pragati Maidan, India gate, Connaught place, Duala Kuan junction, Karol Bagh, GK2, Chanakyapuri, RK Puram, Vasant Kunj, Mayur Vihar, Dwarka

AQI for Delhi Commonwealth games

The AQI is reported in four different formats (listed below). Click on the AQI boxes to access the four text files with estimated AQI at the select locations from the list.

The images below present the AQI for the city based on daily average concentrations for two days for the six criteria pollutants. Click on images to enlarge view.