Research

• Blue Collar Computing
• Analytics
• Bioinformatics
• Biomedical Sciences
   and Visualization
• Computational Science
   Engineering Research
• Cyberinfrastructure and
   Software Development
• Systems Research
• Research Archive

Related Links

• AT Summit
• Collaborations
• Get an Account
• Research Partners
• Research Video Library

Program for Computational Reactive Mechanics (PCRM)

Transport of air pollutants over the Indian Region

2. Introduction

India, the seventh largest country in land area in the world and the second largest in Asia, has a population of more than a billion and a total geographical area of 329 million hectares (Mha). 72% of India’s population lives in rural villages and depends on agriculture. 54.4 % of the land is arable. Agricultural vulnerability, risks, and opportunities are very important for this segment of the population. The urban population who live in metropolitan cities are exposed to the air-borne pollutants and emissions and are prone to respiratory and other diseases. The most vulnerable section of the society – rural population and the urban population get most affected by these pollutants, in addition to the global and local climates affected by the emission of green house gases (GHGs).

Scientific and economic risk assessments of these pollutants require an accurate and complete understanding of the gridded concentrations of the primary and secondary species. This study will provide temporal and spatial changes in the chemical species concentrations in the atmosphere and the fluxes under different scenarios, allowing for a representational distribution over the entire Indian region. Gridded concentration of pollutants such as ozone, NO_x, NO₃, CO, and SO₄ that affect the human and plant health will be studied specifically. The detailed emission data obtained from the validated computer models can then be used to ensure reliability of the measured data. Modeling enables dynamic analysis of the impact of pollutants on human, plant, and animal health.

So far in India, abatement/mitigation strategy are based on gross data and a situation assessment. Available measurement data is sparse and irregular in time and space. Implementing a comprehensive monitoring network over such a large geographic area becomes prohibitive due to cost considerations. The other problem is to monitor/measure the emissions and pollutants on a continuous basis. The species concentrations measured at fixed monitoring stations indicate the magnitude of concentrations only in the immediate vicinities of the monitoring sites and do not necessarily represent the concentrations that occur at other locations or to which individuals are exposed.

Most air pollutants, generated from different sources, are directly emitted into the atmosphere. These are known as the primary air pollutants. These air pollutants are dispersed and transported by airflow and associated turbulence from their emission points (or sources) to different regions. The concentration of primary pollutants decreases rapidly with increasing distance from the source. Primary pollutants, as these are transported in the earth’s atmosphere, go through several chemical processes in air, and generate secondary pollutants. The relevant processes, which include photochemical processes, are highly complex, nonlinear, and interactive and are affected by the meteorological parameters of the region. Exposure to primary pollution (which may be relatively brief) and exposure to secondary pollution (which is more prolonged) have different clinical significance.