An Overview of Air Quality Modeling Activities in South Asia

Abstract

Air pollution is a growing major environmental concern in South Asia owing to rapid economic growth and expansion of urban, industrial, power generation and traffic sectors. This problem is widely recognized by the national and international community and many efforts have been made in the past 25 years to gain insight into the causes of this problem. These efforts include building ozone and aerosol monitoring networks, analysis of satellite datasets, development of emission inventories, setting-up and evaluating regional and global chemical transport models and using these models to address various scientific issues. Here, we provide a brief review of air quality related research activities in South Asia especially the evolution of air quality monitoring networks and air quality modeling activities. The chapter begins with an introduction to air quality problems in South Asia followed by a brief discussion of the evolution of aerosol and ozone monitoring networks and model evaluation efforts. This is followed by a summary of key findings from studies that focused on (i) understanding the seasonality of black carbon aerosols in India, (ii) on quantifying the sources of black carbon, carbon monoxide and ozone, (iii) the interaction of dust aerosols with tropospheric chemistry, (iv) the past and future changes in South Asian air quality, and (v) the effects of present-day pollution on human health and crop productivity in South Asia. We conclude with a list of modeling tasks that can be undertaken in the next 5 years to advance our understanding of air quality related issues in South Asia.