Metropolitan Air Quality and Weather Service

Recently, IITM had taken a lead to successfully develop and implement the SYSTEM  of AIR POLLUTION monitoring and FORECASTING (SAFAR) to understand the current level of air pollution and to forecasting their level 24-48h in advance during the Commonwealth Games 2010 held in Delhi. Other than the operational service during the Commonwealth games, the SAFAR system revealed many scientific results which points towards the deteriorating air quality in the Metropolitan cities like Delhi, which could have adverse effect on the health as well as agriculture yield and closely linked to climate change on long run. One of the most important conclusions of these scientific finding is that regular SAFAR system is essential not only as public information tool but also useful in enhancing our scientific understanding on spatio-temporal variation of several pollutants. This work is proposed to extend the SAFAR in other metropolitan cities including some big cities in India. This will be accomplished using both dense observational network and high resolution air chemistry-transport forecasting model. To forecast the accurate status of air quality development of high resolution emissions inventories of important gaseous and particulate pollutants  arealso proposed.

a) Objectives:

1. To develop a System of Air Quality Forecasting and Research (SAFAR) in major metropolitan cities of India (including Delhi, Pune, Chennai, Kolkata, Mumbai, Bangalore, Hyderabad, etc.) under the studies of Atmospheric Chemistry and Climate.
2. To provide near real time and 1-2 day advance forecast for weather and air quality information for several Metropolitan cities. 
3. To forecast weather in now-cast and short range scales over different sections of the Metropolitan cities including severe weather warnings.
4. To provide detailed customized meteorological products on-demand basis
5. To study the impact of air pollution on Health and Agriculture.

b) Participating Institutions:

1. Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology, Pune
2. NCMRWF, New Delhi

c) Implementation Plan:

1. Installation of Meso-urban observation networks in major Metropolitan cities.
2. Development of high resolution dynamic emission inventories of air pollutants for proposed Metropolitan cities.
3. Wind profilers, Radiometers and Wind Lidar for continuous upper air observations.
4. Configuration and operationalization of meso-scale and nowcast models.
5. Configuration and operationalization of high resolution atmospheric chemistry transport forecasting models nested to different proposed city domains.

Operation of Air Quality forecast services through dynamic web based portals and public display systems.

The Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology (IITM) will coordinate and lead the effort for the development of SAFAR system and continue its effort in improving the skill of forecasts. NCMRWF will help in providing the boundary conditions for coupled weather model using GFS and also help in assimilation of air quality and weather data.  Once SAFAR system is fully developed and tested for operations, it will be transferred to  India Meteorological Department (IMD) for operational services. Provisions for funding the National as well as the international partners will be year marked for improving the parameterization of chemical transport models and implementing the global MACC boundary conditions to initialize the online CTM for air quality forevasting. These partners will be allowed to use the HPC facility at IITM. 

(d) Deliverables:

1. Develop and dedicate the System of Air Quality Forecasting & Research (SAFAR) to nation as an operational service in at least 6 Metropolitan cities.
2. Delivering the comprehensive seasonal air pollution scenario and relative contribution of different emission sources for various metropolitan cities under study.
3. Identification of pathways of pollutants from neighbouring states and relative contribution between local versus distant sources along with its interpretation for different cities.
4. Role of meteorology in the distribution of air pollutants and visa-versa by revealing the spatio-temporal behaviour of pollutants and their variability specific to the location.
5. A mechanism to spread public awareness and preparing the basis for mitigation strategies to protect our health by displaying the level of air quality well in advance as operational services.

e) Budget requirement including foreign exchange component : 90.00 crores

(Rs. In crores)