Secondary organic aerosols biggest contributor to Delhi pollution on Wednesday: IITM

Secondary organic aerosols biggest contributor to Delhi pollution on Wednesday: IITM

New Delhi, Secondary organic aerosols emerged as the biggest contributor to Delhi's air pollution on Wednesday, accounting for 22.7 per cent of the pollution load, closely followed by domestic solid biofuel burning at 22.3 per cent, according to source-apportionment estimates by the Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology .

Secondary organic aerosols biggest contributor to Delhi pollution on Wednesday: IITM

Vehicular emissions accounted for 19.3 per cent of the pollution, while secondary inorganic aerosols contributed 11.9 per cent, the IITM models showed.

Experts explained that sources for secondary organic aerosols are certain types of industries, diesel and petrol vehicles, as well as biomass burning.

The contribution of firecrackers, which had emerged as the biggest source on Monday and Tuesday following Diwali, dropped sharply to 7.4 per cent on Wednesday.

On Monday, firecrackers accounted for 71.1 per cent of Delhi's pollution load, with their contribution declining to 29.8 per cent on Tuesday.

The estimates had a standard deviation of 104.1 percentage points on Monday and 27.7 percentage points on Tuesday, indicating considerable variability in the modelled contributions. The SD for firecrackers on Wednesday was 6.6 percentage points.

Wood burning contributed 1.2 per cent, while industrial emissions and mineral dust and ash accounted for 1 per cent and 0.9 per cent, respectively. Coal combustion contributed 0.7 per cent.

Delhi's average 24-hour Air Quality Index deteriorated to 313 on Wednesday, placing it in the 'very poor' category, after improving marginally to 'poor' on Tuesday, with the 4 pm reading at 299.

An AQI between 201 and 300 is classified as 'poor', while readings between 301 and 400 fall in the 'very poor' category.

Safdarjung, representative of Delhi's weather, recorded a minimum temperature of 14.8 degree Celsius, 0.5 degree above the normal and a 0.9 degree decrease from Tuesday. The maximum temperature at the station on Wednesday was logged at 30.6 degrees Celsius, one degree above the normal and 1.1 degree increase from a day before.

Several other weather stations also recorded a slight decrease in the minimum temperature and a slight increase in the maximum temperature.

Lodhi Road recorded a minimum of 14.9 degrees Celsius, 1.5 lower than Tuesday. The maximum was logged at 30.6 degrees, 1.6 degree more than Tuesday. Ridge recorded a minimum of 16.1 degrees, 0.3 lower than a day before, and a maximum temperature of 29.7 degrees Celsius, 0.9 degree more than Tuesday.

The India Meteorological department has forecast partly cloudy skies and a mist or shallow fog at few places in the morning hours for Thursday.

This article was generated from an automated news agency feed without modifications to text.