Wind at a higher altitude, which can ventilate the capital’s sky, is at a faster speed of 27.7 km per hour, but it is flowing in an unfavourable direction.
By ET Bureau | Updated:
PTI
Farmers in Punjab have stepped up burning of crop reside after the harvest to prepare their fields for the next round of planting.
NEW DELHI: Air quality in the capital region will deteriorate sharply in the next two days because of a significant rise in emissions from field fires from Punjab, low surface wind and atmospheric conditions that trap pollutants, the official pollution monitoring agency of the government has warned.
Farmers in Punjab have stepped up burning of crop reside after the harvest to prepare their fields for the next round of planting. This has a direct bearing on the air quality particularly when surface wind is blowing at a slow speed of 2.5 km per hour, favouring accumulation of very small particulate matter called PM-2.5.
Wind at a higher altitude, which can ventilate the capital’s sky, is at a faster speed of 27.7 km per hour, but it is flowing in an unfavourable direction, System of Air Quality and Weather Forecasting and Research (Safar) of the Ministry of Earth Science, said in its latest assessment. “Fire counts show significant increase in past 24 hrs which will significantly deteriorate Air Quality of tomorrow and the day after, then improve a bit,” it said.
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