Central government announces pollution forecast system for national capital

NEW DELHI: The Central government on October 15, 2018, announced a pollution forecast system that can alert the probability of the extreme pollution events and dust storms three days in advance.

Madhavan Rajeevan, Secretary of the Ministry of Earth Sciences (MoES), said that the Union Environment Minister Harsh Vardhan has revealed that the system is yet to go live but is expected to be available to public by October 17, 2018, through the Central Pollution Control Board and the Environment Pollution Control Authority.

This application is developed by organisations run by involving the National Centre for Medium Range Weather Forecasting, the India Meteorological Department and the Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology, Pune. It was developed with assistance from the Finnish Meteorological Institute, Finland and the US-based National Centre for Atmospheric Research.

The system works similar to a weather model that will assimilate data from satellites on dust aerosols, particulate matter from stubble burning and other air pollutants like Sulphur dioxide and Nitrogen dioxide.

It will account for background aerosols and pollutants and will forecast how the dust is likely to travel over long distances.