Can Delhi's Pollution be Affected by Crop Fires in the Punjab Region?

Abstract

The severe air pollution events continue to occur every year during late October and early November in Delhi, forcing air/ land traffic disruptions and anxiety in the daily life of the citizens. We analyze the behaviors of the air pollution events in October and November 2019 that arose from the crop-residue burning as seen using remote sensing techniques. Transport pathways and the mean transit time from the fire hotspots are evaluated using the FLEXPART (FLEXible PARTicle dispersion model). Our results suggest that the polluted regions in Delhi are partly influenced by the crop-residue burning. The uncertainty of our evaluation can be attributable to insufficient information on emission sources because the biomass burning emission based on daily-basis fire radiative power (FRP) of Moderate-Resolution Imaging Spectro-radiometry (MODIS) is significantly degraded by the existence of hazy clouds. In future, it is desirable to establish a dense measurement network between Punjab and Delhi for the early detection of the source signals of aerosol emissions and their transport in this region. The FLEXPART model simulation shows the transport of emission signals from Punjab to Delhi, which further expands toward the Bengal region within a span of two days. (Citation: Takigawa, M., P. K. Patra, Y. Matsumi, S. K. Dhaka, T. Nakayama, K. Yamaji, M. Kajino, and S. Hayashida, 2020: Can Delhi's pollution be affected by crop fires in the Punjab region?