Air Quality – Emissions or Meteorology?


December 14th, 2015

Delhi’s air quality is seasonal and complex. We have the wintertime highs and the summer time lows. This also goes hand in hand with the media coverage. While the growing emissions is known to worsen the pollution levels in the winter months, the meteorology also plays its part. The air is notably compressed with the mixing heights dropping down to less than 100 meters (as compared to more than 2000 meters in the summer months), which further exacerbates for the pollution levels. The infograph below presents a basic understanding necessary to link the dynamic nature of the meteorology (no hour is the same) and the dynamic nature of the emissions (no place is the same).

Meteorological fields from WRF, over Delhi, are available here.

Impact of Emissions and Meteorology on Delhi's Air Quality

Download the infograph as a PDF or a GIF

Mail your questions to simair@urbanemissions.info