SAFAR at a Glance
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SAFAR at a Glance
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SAFAR system integrates several complex components like meso-net monitoring
network consisting of online air pollution analyzers, automatic weather stations,
emission inventory, activity data, 3 -D coupled atmospheric chemistry transport
models to facilitate forecasting of several major air pollutants like: Ozone, NOx,
CO, PM2.5, PM10, benzene, toluene, xylene and BC .
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The forecasting model - SAFAR The major pollutants
which are of concern for Human Health are Ozone (O3),Oxides of Nitrogen (NOx), Carbon Monoxide (CO),
Suspended Particulate Matters (PM10 /PM2.5),Black Carbon (BC) and Benzene. In India the data collected
for these pollutants is in scattered manner but it is hard to find simultaneous monitoring of all these major
air pollutants on strategically selected locations within the city which is essential for the accurate simulation
of the level of these pollutants on a gridded scale and to forecast the future level using air quality
Chemistry-Transport Model(CTM) . The work related to air quality chemistry transport model
consisting of the detailed chemistry and the area specific chemical process, its interaction with radiation
and dynamics and the feedback of one process to another for the Indian geographical region is sparse and so
far no attempt has been made to forecast the air quality using such kind of models which only can provide the
reliable forecast.
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The IITM, Pune of the Earth System Sciences Organisation (ESSO), Ministry of Earth Sciences,
Govt. of India has been involved in such kind of detailed chemistry transport modeling of air
pollutants for the past 2 decades and several India specific scientific findings have been reported recently
in the international journals (Beig and Ali, 2006, Roy et al., 2008) using these models and working towards
making such models to work online to acquire the forecasting capabilities. The CTM is capable of simulating the
present level and forecast the future level of these pollutants. The forecasting capabilities are restricted due to
lack of high resolution emission inventories of these pollutants, lack of systematic network of simultaneous
measurements required to validate the model and to set up the boundary conditions. Hence, to simulate the present
level of pollution and to forecast their level, it is essential that high resolution emission inventories are
developed and enough observational data of all the simulated species are sufficiently available over the strategic
locations in Pune (PMR), accordingly special intense observations are made under SAFAR.
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