Late withdrawal of monsoon likely to affect air quality in Delhi

A day after Dussehra celebrations, air quality in city was reported to be moderate on Wednesday but it is likely to deteriorate if monsoon withdrawal from rthwest India stretches to end of this month, an official said.

According to SAFAR, a unit under Ministry of Earth Sciences, Particulate Matter (PM) 2.5 in Delhi was in satisfactory range while PM 10 in moderate category, indicating that larger particulate matter is main pollutant ay present. re is still a lot of monsoon moisture in and around Delhi due to high wind speed and this helped disperse pollutants, System of Air Quality and Wear Forecasting And Research (SAFAR) programme director Gurfan Beig said.

Late monsoon withdrawl t a good thing

However, it may change due to late withdrawal of monsoon from rthwest India. Beig said retreat of monsoon coincides with anti-cyclonic circulation. " late monsoon withdrawal is t good news for air quality in rth India. During third to fourth week of October, temperature will also start to cool," he said.

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" anticyclone, which forms immediately after withdrawal and associated with clear skies and sinking motion, will make atmosphere very stable beneath means significantly calm surface winds," Beig said. This will le to stagnant wear conditions like low wind speed, descending air and compressed boundary layer, which favour rapid fine particulate matter formation and accumulation of pollutants, he ded.

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" situation becomes worse if it is encountered with any ditional internal (like firecrackers) or external (like stubble) emission source. In a landlocked city like Delhi, it may le to rapid accumulation and may trigger extended extreme pollution events," he ded. However, if local emissions are controlled it will be a good check to observe and avoid air quality crises, he ded. monsoon retreat begun from rthwest India on Wednesday, more than a month after its rmal withdrawal date.

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