Evaluating the variability, transport and periodicity of particulate matter over smart city Bhubaneswar, a tropical coastal station of eastern India

Abstract

Air pollution has become a matter of concern over Indian mega-cities. In the present study, we analyse the variation of particulate matter (PM) (PM 10 and PM 2.5) over Bhubaneswar (20.18°N, 85.50°E, 45 above MSL), which is a coastal Indian station, and the state capital of Odisha. Variation of meteorological parameters (i.e. air temperature, humidity, wind speed, and wind direction) over the station shows low winds originating and transported mainly from land areas during post-monsoon and winter, and from the Bay of Bengal during pre-monsoon and monsoon seasons. The site, in general, has evident diurnal variations of meteorological parameters and PM, other than monsoon season. In addition to surface observations at the site, 48-h back trajectory calculation by HYSPLIT model and the study employs potential source contribution function analysis for precise identification of the transported pollution areas for different seasons.

Significant change in air quality parameters during the year 2020 over 1st smart city of India: Bhubaneswar

“…5). As expected, most of the trajectories are coming from coastal regions and Bay of Bengal to the study site with few trajectories approaching from northern and central Indian region [14,24]. These trajectories reach to the site by crossing high emission regions of coal-fired power plants and coal mining regions of the country [9].…”

“…Though the mean and median for lockdown period of 2020 is at par with that of 2019, the 99% values are lower in 2020. Lower values of 99% data in 2020 signify that the episodic values recorded in previous years[14,24] are not observed during the lockdown period of 2020.The percentage change is giving a clear indication of PM not decreasing as found at various other Indian sites so far…”

“…1 ), and Carbon Monoxide (CO) concentrations through US-EPA approved analyzers and meteorological parameters (humidity, solar radiation, temperature, wind speed and direction) for March 2019-May 2019, and March 2020-May 2020. The details of instruments model and make can be obtained from Sahu et al [24] and https :// www.safar .tropm et.res.in. Details about Coronavirus lockdown dates are obtained from the Government of India website (https ://www.mygov .in).…”

“…The particulate matter (PM) variation accounts for an essential component of air quality index at any place and is frequently used independently as a proxy for defining air pollution (e.g. [3,8,24]). For Coronavirus lockdown most of the researchers have reported a drastic decrease in aerosols/PM over the Indian region [13,19,29].…”

“…Eastern India, which is home to many high capacity coal-fired thermal power plants [10], has not reported significant studies of pollution changes during Coronavirus lockdown period over India. The present work analyses the data of Particulate Matter (PM 2.5 , PM 10 ), Nitrogen Oxides (NO X ), surface ozone (O 3 ), and Carbon Monoxide (CO) before and during the Coronavirus lockdown over the first smart city of India-Bhubaneswar [24], which is the state capital of eastern India state Odisha. To mark the difference in concentrations visually, we also compared the data of 2020 with same period data of 2019 over the site.…”