After a slight sigh of relief on Friday, the air pollution in the national capital became more vulnerable on Saturday. As of now, the air quality in most part of Delhi remains in the ‘very poor’ category as stubble burning in neighbouring states including Punjab and Haryana continues.
On Saturday morning, the AQI recorded by System of Air Quality and Weather Forecasting And Research (SAFAR) stood at 373 while the PM2.5 has now become the lead pollutant instead of PM10.
AQI in Delhi:
As estimated by SAFAR, most of the areas of national capital including Delhi University, Pusa Road, Lodhi Road, Mathura Road, IIT-Delhi, Indira Gandhi International Airport (Terminal-3) and Ayanagar recorded air quality in the ‘very poor’ category with an AQI of 373, 384, 327, 379, 390, 387, and 372 respectively.
AQI in NCR:
NCR’s air quality, which showed improvement earlier this year, owing to covid-19 lockdown, has now come under ‘severe’ category as some parts of Noida recorded over 400 AQI.
In Gurgaon, the AQI estimated was 339 which makes the air quality fall under ‘very poor’ category.
SAFAR prediction:
“Calm surface winds prevail over the region and winds are forecast to pick up, the improved ventilation likely to influence air quality positively. The SAFAR model predicts that AQI is likely to be in the middle-end of the ‘very poor’ category by Saturday. However, a significant improvement is forecast for November 1st to the lower end of the very poor to poor category,” said SAFAR prediction.
The SAFAR synergized stubble fire counts significantly decreased and stood at 1,143 Thursday. Although the boundary layer winds direction is favorable for pollutant transport towards the region, improved ventilation conditions likely to bring down the concentration levels in Delhi. The stubble burning share in PM2.5 decreased and is estimated at 19% for Friday. In summary, increased surface wind speed and faster dispersion are likely to significantly improve the situation by November 1st,” it added.
As per the air quality index, the AQI between zero and 50 falls under good category. 51 and 100 is satisfactory while 101 and 200 calls for moderate AQI.
From 200 to 300, the AQI is considered very poor and in between 301 to 400, it becomes very poor. Above 400, the AQI is considered severe.
