Atmospheric radical chemistry determines the atmospheric composition, fate of trace species, secondary production including formation of organic aerosols and harmful tropospheric ozone (O3). Chlorine radicals (Cl•) have a pivotal role in air quality under contrasting urban atmospheric chemistry. Even in trace concentration Cl• is a critical oxidant in urban atmosphere.  Cl• has analogous reaction mechanism to OH• and having noted that Cl• have much faster reaction rates than initiated by OH•. The nocturnal reactions of N2O5 on Cl-rich aerosols affect NOx recycling, oxidation of VOCs and increases levels in particulate matter in winter mornings, thus posing serious threat to human population and reduces visibility. Abundance of Cl• highly depends on regional emissions and Indian region is prone to high chlorine rich PM and notably, northern India falls under most polluted regions globally.  Despite its importance, chlorine chemistry is often overlooked in atmospheric models, underestimating pollution levels.The work utilizes 3D GEOS-Chem model, integrated with anthropogenic HCl emissions coupled with heterogeneous N2O5 + Cl chemistry to evaluate the impact of chlorine chemistry on air quality over Indian region. It includes model's capability in reproducing observations and their distributions, quantifying the changes in total PM2.5 and surface O3. The model successfully reproduces observations, quantifying the effects of chlorine emissions on regional air chemistry. This study provides insights into the distribution of reactive chlorine species, limiting processes, impact on atmospheric oxidative capacity, chlorine-initiated oxidation of VOCs and changes in the levels of atmospheric pollutants. It underscores the necessity of incorporating chlorine emissions and mechanisms into models to accurately predict and understand air quality in India. Further results will be shared at the later stage providing a detailed and its potential effects regional air quality.

A document by Malasani Chakradhar Reddy. Click on the document to view its contents.

Comprehending the intricate interplay between atmospheric aerosols and water vapour in subsaturated regions is vital for accurate modelling of aerosol–cloud–radiation–climate dynamics. But the microphysical mechanisms governing these interactions with ambient aerosols remain inadequately understood. Here we report results from high-altitude, relatively pristine site in Western-Ghats of India during monsoon, serving as a baseline for climate processes in one of the world’s most polluted regions. Utilizing a novel quartz crystal microbalance (QCM) approach, we conducted size-resolved sampling to analyse humidity-dependent growth factors, hygroscopicity, deliquescence behaviour, and aerosol liquid water content (ALWC). Fine-mode aerosols (≤2.5 μm) exhibited size-dependent interactions with water vapour, contributing significantly to ALWC. Deliquescence was observed in larger aerosols (>180 nm), influenced by organic species, with deliquescence relative humidity (DRH) lower than that of pure inorganic salts. This research highlights the significance of understanding ambient aerosol-water interactions and hygroscopicity for refining climate models in subsaturated conditions.

Air pollution caused by various anthropogenic activities and biomass burning continues to be a major problem in India. To assess the effectiveness of current air pollution mitigation measures, we used a 3D global chemical transport model to analyze the projected optical depth of carbonaceous aerosol (AOD) in India under representative concentration pathways (RCP) 4.5 and 8.5 over the period 2000-2100. Our results show a decrease in future emissions, leading to a decrease in modeled AOD under both RCPs after 2030. The RCP4.5 scenario shows a 48-65% decrease in AOD by the end of the century, with the Indo-Gangetic Plain (IGP) experiencing a maximum change of ~25% by 2030 compared to 2010. Conversely, RCP8.5 showed an increase in AOD of ~29% by 2050 and did not indicate a significant decrease by the end of the century. Our study also highlights that it is likely to take three decades for current policies to be effective for regions heavily polluted by exposure to carbonaceous aerosols, such as the IGP and eastern India. We emphasize the importance of assessing the effectiveness of current policies and highlight the need for continued efforts to address the problem of air pollution from carbonaceous aerosols, both from anthropogenic sources and biomass burning, in India.

The Indo-Gangetic Plain (IGP) is one of the dominant sources of air pollution worldwide. During winter, the variations in planetary boundary layer (PBL) height, driven by a strong radiative thermal inversion, affect the regional air pollution dispersion. To date, measurements of aerosol-water vapour interactions, especially cloud condensation nuclei (CCN) activity, are limited in the Indian sub-continent, causing large uncertainties in the radiative forcing estimates of aerosol-cloud interactions. We present the results of a one-month field campaign (February-March 2018) in the megacity, Delhi, a significant polluter in the IGP. We measured the composition of fine particulate matter (PM1) and size-resolved CCN properties over a wide range of water vapour supersaturations. The analysis includes PBL modelling, backward trajectories, and fire spots to elucidate the influence of PBL and air mass origins on the aerosols. The aerosol properties depended strongly on the PBL height, and a simple power-law fit could parameterize the observed correlations of PM1 mass, aerosol particle number, and CCN number with PBL height, indicating PBL induced changes in aerosol accumulation. The low inorganic mass fractions, low aerosol hygroscopicity and high externally mixed weakly CCN-active particles under low PBL height (<100 m) indicated the influence of the PBL on aerosol aging processes. In contrast, aerosol properties did not depend strongly on air mass origins or wind direction, implying that the observed aerosol and CCN are from local emissions. An error function could parameterize the relationship between CCN number and supersaturation throughout the campaign.

Covid lockdown presented an important opportunity to study relatively cleaner conditions in India. The complex factors of power production, industry, and transportation could be more carefully dissected because of the extreme reduction in the influence of the latter two emission sources. Measurements of cloud condensation nuclei (CCN) activity and other chemical properties of atmospheric aerosols showed that newly formed aerosol particles were produced in the SO2 plume from a large coal-fired power plant, contrary to normal conditions of heavy pollution. The sulfate-rich particles had high CCN activity and number concentration, indicating high cloud-forming potential. Examining the sensitivity of CCN properties under relatively clean conditions over India provides important new constraints on the perturbations of past and future climate forcing by anthropogenic emissions. Because most sensitive regime of aerosol climate forcing on cloud development is the midpoint of relatively clean conditions afforded by the Covid lockdown between background and polluted conditions.

Aerosol Liquid Water Content (ALWC), a ubiquitous component of atmospheric aerosols, contributes to total aerosol mass burden, modulating atmospheric chemistry through aerosol surface reactions and reducing atmospheric visibility. However, the complex dependency of ALWC on aerosol chemistry and relative humidity (RH) in the Indian region remains poorly characterized. Here, we combine available measurements of aerosol chemical composition with thermodynamic model ISORROPIA2.1 to reveal a comprehensive picture of ALWC in fine mode aerosols during the winter season in the Indian region. The fac-tors modulating ALWC are primarily dependent on the RH, such that the effect of aerosol dry mass and hygroscopicity are significant at high RH while the effect of hygroscopicity loses its significance as RH is lowered. ALWC, depending upon the particle hygroscopicity, displays a sharp non-linear rise beyond a critical value of ambient RH. Further analysis coupling WRF-Chem simulation with ISORROPIA2.1 revealed significant spatial heterogeneity in ALWC over India, strongly associating with regions of high aerosol loading and RH. The Indo-Gangetic Plain is consequently observed to be a hotspot of higher ALWC, which explains the prevalent conditions of haze and smog during winter in the region. Our findings re-emphasize that high aerosol mass resulting from intense pollution is vital in modulating aerosol–climate interaction under favorable meteorological conditions. They suggest the need for pollution control strategies to be directed at the reduction in emissions of specific species like NH3 and NOx, which were observed to contribute to the enhancement of PM and ALWC during wintertime in the region.

The recent pandemic caused by the 2019 outbreak of novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV) has affected more than 1.3 million people resulting ~75000 deaths across 212 countries/territories as on 7th April 2020. The importation of the cases owing to enormous international travels from the affected countries is the foremost reason for local cycle of transmission. For a country like India, the second most populous country in the world with ~135 billion population, the management and control of 2019-nCoV domestic spread heavily relied on effective screening and strict quarantine of passengers arriving at various international airports in India from affected countries. Here, by extracting the data from FLIRT, an online airline database for more than 800 airlines, and scanning more than 180000 flights and 39.9 million corresponding passenger seats during 4th – 25th March, we show that India experienced the highest risk index of importing the passengers from middle eastern airports. Contrary to perception, travelers from China imposed lowest risk of importing the infected cases in India. This is clearly evident form the fact that while the number of infected cases were on the peak in China India was one of the least affected countries. The number of cases in India started exhibiting a sharp increase in the infected cases only after the European countries and USA recorded large number of infected cases. We further argue that while the number of cases in middle eastern countries may still be very low, the airports in middle eastern countries, particularly Dubai, being one of the largest transit hubs for international passengers, including arriving in India, might have posed a higher risk of getting infected with 2019-nCoV. We suggest that any future travel related disease infection screening at the airports should critically assess the passengers from major transit hubs in addition to affected country of origin.