High-Resolution Ambient Record of Aerosols over Delhi and Associated Typical Health Effects

WashU Affiliated Authors: Jai Prakash (Aerosol and Air Quality Research Laboratory)

Abstract: Atmospheric aerosols, soon after their emission, may experience changes in its chemical composition, mass concentration, size, and its optical properties. These changes are dynamic in nature and occur over a short period of time. Since aerosols play a critical role in human health effects, cloud microphysics, hydrological cycle and climate perturbations, it is therefore of paramount importance to understand both qualitatively and quantitatively all the major changes, which an ambient particle could experience during its residence time in the atmosphere. High-resolution measurements (i.e. real-time measurements) are being carried out worldwide to capture any high-frequency changes in aerosol characteristics. In this study, we discuss the observations based on an open-access high-resolution data set retrieved from the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) for a location in central capital Delhi. Along with the particulate matter (PM) data, we also discuss some of the gaseous species owing to the reason that these gases influence the aerosol behaviour and its budget due to coating and secondary aerosol formation. The source strengths are highly variable (in both space and time) in Indo-Gangetic Plain (IGP) mainly due to industrial activities and seasonal influence of biofuels and biomass burning emission. This chapter presents a case study highlighting some of the important observations on temporal variability and processes from high-resolution atmospheric data set of aerosols and reactive gases. We also present here a review on the health effects of outdoor and indoor aerosol pollution.

Citation of DOI: Rajput, P., Prakash, J., Sharma, D. (2022). High-Resolution Ambient Record of Aerosols over Delhi and Associated Typical Health Effects. In: Sonwani, S., Shukla, A. (eds) Airborne Particulate Matter. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-16-5387-2_5