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Ozone in ambient air at a tropical megacity, Delhi: characteristics, trends and cumulative ozone exposure indices

Journal of Atmospheric Chemistry volume 60, pages 237–252 (2008)Cite this article

Abstract

Seven year data of hourly surface ozone concentration is analyzed to study diurnal cycle, trends, excess of ozone levels above threshold value and cumulative ozone exposure indices at a tropical megacity, Delhi. The ozone levels clearly exhibit a diurnal cycle, similar to what has been found in other urban places. A sharp increase in the ozone levels during forenoon and a sharp decrease in the early afternoon can be observed. The average rate of increase in ozone concentration between 09 and 12 h has been observed to be 7.1 ppb h−1. We find that the daily maximum and daytime 8-h (10–17 h) ozone levels are increasing at a rate of about 1.7 (± 0.7) and 1.3 (± 0.56) ppb y−1, respectively. The directives on ozone pollution in ambient air provided by United Nations Economic Commission for Europe and World Health Organization for vegetation (AOT40) and human health protection were used to assess the air quality. The present surface ozone levels in the city are high enough to exceed “Critical Levels” which are considered to be safe for human health, vegetation and forest. The human health threshold was exceeded for up to ~45 days per year. The AOT40 (Accumulated exposure Over a Threshold of 40 ppb) threshold was exceeded significantly during winter (D-J-F) and pre-monsoon (M-A-M) (Rabi crop growing season) season in India. Translating AOT40 exceedances during pre-monsoon into relative yield loss we estimate yield loss of 22.7%, 22.5%, 16.3% and 5.5% for wheat, cotton, soybean and rice, respectively.

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Acknowledgment

We are thankful to Director, Indian institute of Tropical meteorology, Pune and Director, National Physical Laboratory, New Delhi for their encouragement during the course of this study. Thanks also to NOAA/OAR/ESRL PSD, Boulder, Colorado, USA, for providing NCEP Reanalysis Derived data from the website http://www.cdc.noaa.gov/, TEMIS service for providing tropospheric NO2 data from the website http://www.temis.nl/airpollution/no2.html and Dr. D.M. Chate for his valuable suggestions. Thanks are also for the financial support under CSIR emeritus scientist scheme to one of the author (SLJ).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. PMA Division, Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology, Pune, 411008, India

    Sachin D. Ghude & G. Beig

  2. Radio and Atmospheric Sciences Division, National Physical Laboratory, New Delhi, 100012, India

    S. L. Jain, B. C. Arya, Y. N. Ahammed & Arun Kumar

  3. Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur, CORAL Division, Kharagpur, -721302, W.B., India

    B. Tyagi

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  1. Sachin D. Ghude
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  2. S. L. Jain
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  3. B. C. Arya
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  4. G. Beig
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  5. Y. N. Ahammed
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  6. Arun Kumar
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Correspondence to Sachin D. Ghude.

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Ghude, S.D., Jain, S.L., Arya, B.C. et al. Ozone in ambient air at a tropical megacity, Delhi: characteristics, trends and cumulative ozone exposure indices. J Atmos Chem 60, 237–252 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10874-009-9119-4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10874-009-9119-4

Keywords

  • Surface ozone
  • Megacity air quality
  • Ozone pollution
  • Ozone trends
  • AOT40