Spatio-temporal distribution of pollutant trace gases (CO, CH4, O3 and NO2) in India: an observational study

Abstract

India is one of the largest contributors to anthropogenic emissions during the recent decade associated with its rapid economic growth in India. Trace gases are important components in the climate change process and due to that climate change, there will be a change in their atmospheric concentrations as the climate is sensitive to Earth’s; therefore, proper assessment of trace gases is necessary for ongoing sudden changes in climate. In this study, we used remote-sensing datasets from the Atmospheric Infrared Sounder (AIRS) and Ozone Monitoring Instrument (OMI) to analyze the spatio-temporal variations of four trace gases, like methane (CH4), ozone (O3), carbon monoxide (CO), and nitrogen dioxide (NO2) over India region during 2006–2015 and taken four seasons (i.e., winter, spring, summer, and winter) to interpret the seasonal variation. The project focuses on the temporal pattern of pollutant trace gases i.e., monthly, seasonal, and annual mean variations of trace gases, trend analysis of trace gases, and a comparison of the seasonal behavior of the trace gases by trend analysis was assessed. Higher concentrations of CO show east-to-west, CH4 show north-to-south, and O3 south-to-north gradient, indicating the variations in trace gases due to the impact of emissions and local meteorology. On the other hand, due to immense population density, huge traffic emissions, tremendous, polluted air, and overgrown industrial activities, total NO2 concentrations shoot up over Delhi, Lucknow, and Kolkata. Now as a result of seasonal variation in the long-range transport of air parcels and biomass burning activities, all trace gases shown significant seasonal variations in the spring season and substantially reduced in the summer season. However, in the winter season, O3 concentration evaluates minimum due to less amount of heat on cold days which leads to the reduction of O3 formation. Due to trace gases, all are significant to get regional climate variability. In this study by taking 2006 as a base year and investigate the behaviors of gases for 2007–2015 years to exhibit the increment and decrements in four seasons of all trace gases by taking the most populated 11 different cities of India.

Keywords

• AIRS
• OMI
• seasonal variation
• air pollution
• industrial emissions