Air Quality Warning and Integrated Decision Support System for Emissions (AIRWISE): Enhancing Air Quality Management in Megacities

Ghude, SD and Govardhan, G and Kumar, R and Yadav, PP and Jat, R and Debnath, S and Kalita, G and Jena, C and Ingle, S and Gunwani, P and Pawar, PV and Ambulkar, R and Kumar, S and Kulkarni, S and Kulkarni, A and Khare, M and Kaginalkar, A and Soni, VK and Nigam, N and Ray, K and Atri, SD and Nanjundiah, R and Rajeevan, M (2024) Air Quality Warning and Integrated Decision Support System for Emissions (AIRWISE): Enhancing Air Quality Management in Megacities. In: Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society, 105 (12). E2525-E2550.

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Abstract

Air pollution poses a significant environmental risk to large cities worldwide, including New Delhi, India�s capital. The occurrence of frequent episodes of elevated levels of air pollution during October�March in Delhi and National Capital Territory (Delhi�NCT) chokes its �32 million residents every year. Current air quality models lack the ability to accurately predict severe air pollution events in Delhi�NCT, rendering decision-makers helpless in their efforts to safeguard public health. To address this, a new initiative introduced a high-resolution Air Quality Early Warning System (AQEWS) in 2018, followed by the integration of a decision support system (DSS) in 2021. This enhancement enables dynamic source attribution data and diverse emission reduction scenarios within a single model forecast. The newly developed system, Air Quality Warning and Integrated Decision Support System for Emissions (AIRWISE), assimilates near-real-time satellite aerosol optical depth (AOD) retrievals, satellite-based fire information, surface data from 320 air quality monitoring stations, and high-resolution emissions, resulting in an extensive modeling framework. This framework demonstrates exceptional prediction capabilities, accurately forecasting very poor air quality episodes up to 3 days in advance with a remarkable 83 accuracy, even at a street-level resolution of 400 m. The AQEWS is the world�s first operational air quality forecasting system operating at a high resolution and incorporating chemical data assimilation. The Commission for Air Quality Management (CAQM) relies on forecast data to enforce the Graded Response Action Plan (GRAP) in Delhi�NCT, which imposes restrictions on pollution sources. This paper outlines the AQEWS and DSS, summarizes modeling experiments, verifies forecasts, and discusses challenges in accurately predicting extreme pollution episodes. © 2024 American Meteorological Society.

Item Type:	Journal Article
Publication:	Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society
Publisher:	American Meteorological Society
Additional Information:	The copyright for this article belongs to American Meteorological Society
Keywords:	Air quality; Data quality; Decision making; Emission control; Information management, Air quality management; Data assimilation; Decision supports; Early Warning System; Environmental risks; High resolution; Integrated decision; Large cities; Megacities; Support systems, Quality management
Department/Centre:	Division of Mechanical Sciences > Divecha Centre for Climate Change
Date Deposited:	28 Jan 2025 12:31
Last Modified:	28 Jan 2025 12:31
URI:	http://eprints.iisc.ac.in/id/eprint/87315

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