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Varsity study finds more haze in central India during winter
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- Central India has showed an increase in the number of polluted days in winter season in recent years drawing attention to rapidly deteriorating air quality and also underlines the significance of increasing biomass burning, according to a study “Recent Increase in Winter Hazy Days over Central India and the Arabian Sea” by the University of Hyderabad (UoH).
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- Article Published in Nature-research journal
- Data Used for Study:
(1) 15 years of satellite & model re-analysis data (i.e from 2003 to 2017) set over India and adjoining seas
(2) Examined trends in the number of days with low to high aerosol loading and aerosol-induced direct radiation feedbacks on the surface-atmosphere system over India and adjoining seas for the dry winter season(November–February).
- Findings:
(1) Days with high aerosol loading (i.e. hazy days): are increasing at a rate of 2.6 days per year over central India.
(2) Surprisingly, this increase of haze days over central India is higher than the change over Indo-Gangetic Plain (1.7 days annually).
(3) This rise in the number of hazy days over central India is associated with the relatively higher increase in biomass burning over the region.
(4) This results in a two-fold increase in atmospheric warming over central India as compared to the Indo-Gangetic plain.
- Changing trend
(1) Although high aerosol loading is observed over the Indo-Gangetic plain than other regions, the study reveals that aerosol loading over central India has escalated greatly in recent years, especially between 2013–2017.
(2) Rate of change in the aerosol loading between past and recent years is distinctive regionally: due to the variability in aerosol emission rates & latitudinal diverse climatic conditions.
Sources
The Hindu