Increasing Wind Speeds Fuel the Wider Spreading of Pollution Caused by Fires over the IGP Region during the Indian Post-Monsoon Season

• Published in: Atmosphere Vol. 13; no. 9; p. 1525
• Main Authors: Kumar, Vinay, Patil, Rupesh, Bhawar, Rohini L., Rahul, P.R.C., Yelisetti, Subbarao
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Basel MDPI AG 01-09-2022
• Subjects: Aerosols; Air pollution; AOD; Belt conveyors; Biomass; Climate; Confidence intervals; Crop residues; Datasets; Environmental aspects; Environmental monitoring; fire counts; Forest & brush fires; Forest fires; IGP; India; Low wind speeds; MODIS; Pollution; Speed; Time series; Wind; Wind speed; Winds; India
• ISSN: 2073-4433; 2073-4433
• DOI: 10.3390/atmos13091525

Every year, forest fires and harvest harnessing produce atmospheric pollution in October and November over the Indo-Gangetic Plain (IGP). The fire count data (MODIS) shows a decreasing/increasing trend of fire counts in all confidence ranges in October/November over Northern India. There is a widespread increase in fires with a confidence level above 60 to 80% over the whole Northern Indian region. The Aerosol Optical Index (AOD) also shows an increase with values > 0.7 over the northwestern and IGP regions. There have been some startling results over the lower IGP belt, where there has been increasing trend in AOD during October ~56% and during November, the increase was by a whopping ~116%. However, in November, a slight turning of the winds towards central India might be transporting the AOD towards the central Indian region. Hence, during November, it is inferred that due to the low wind speed over the lower IGP belt and increased fires, the AODs in the polluted air tend to hover for a long time. During recent years from 2010, the winds have become stronger, indicating more transport of AOD is occurring over the lower IGP belt as compared to previous years till 2009, especially in October.