Comparison of ambient air pollution levels of Amritsar during foggy conditions with that of five major north Indian citi

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Comparison of ambient air pollution levels of Amritsar during foggy conditions with that of five major north Indian cities: multivariate analysis and air mass back trajectories Rekha Yadav1 · Manpreet S. Bhatti1   · Sushil K. Kansal2 · Laxmi Das1 · Vishakha Gilhotra1 · Aditi Sugha1 · Dipti Hingmire3 · Shweta Yadav4 · Ankit Tandon5 · Rajbir Bhatti6 · Anubha Goel7 · Tuhin K. Mandal8 Received: 19 May 2020 / Accepted: 22 September 2020 © Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020

Abstract In the present study, winter fog events (Nov. 2017–Feb. 2018) in Amritsar city were compared with other major cities of North India. Multivariate data analysis, along with air mass trajectory analysis, was used to explain the complex behaviour of ambient air quality during winter fog. Average particulate matter (PM) during fog events was ­PM2.5 (77 μg m−3), ­PM10 (162 μg m−3) above the 24 h average National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS) of ­PM2.5 (60 μg m−3) and ­PM10 (100 μg m−3), respectively prescribed by Government of India. Wind speed and visibility during fog events were studied along with prevailing wind direction for major PM episodes. Amritsar’s ­PM2.5 comparison with Ludhiana, Delhi, Kanpur, Lucknow, and Jaipur showed a clear link between Amritsar with Ludhiana (r = 0.807), a North Indian industrial hub. Lucknow and Kanpur had a strong correlation (r = 0.826) due to their proximity. Box-plot of ­PM2.5 to ­PM10 ratio revealed a lower contribution of P ­ M2.5 in Amritsar as compared to other cities. Dimensionality reduction using factor analysis of ambient air quality and meteorological parameters grouped the data in order of their variance explained. The first principal component (PC-1) was ­PM2.5 and ­PM10, followed by an antagonist correlation of humidity with wind velocity and visibility in Amritsar city. Factor analysis of ambient air quality of six cities, grouped Delhi, Kanpur, and Lucknow into PC-1, followed by Ludhiana and Amritsar as PC-2 which could be due to their proximity signifying the similar ambient air quality of the sites. In order to determine the origin of air mass, 24 h backward trajectories were studied and corroborated with wind rose profile. The results revealed the transport of air masses from the west to the source location.

Electronic supplementary material  The online version of this article (https​://doi.org/10.1007/s4245​2-020-03569​-2) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users. *  Manpreet S. Bhatti, [email protected]; [email protected]; Rekha Yadav, [email protected]; Sushil K. Kansal, [email protected]; Laxmi Das, [email protected]; Vishakha Gilhotra, [email protected]; Aditi Sugha, [email protected]; Dipti Hingmire, [email protected]; Shweta Yadav, [email protected]; Ankit Tandon, [email protected]; Rajbir Bhatti, [email protected]; Anubha Goel, [email protected]; Tuhin K. Mandal, [email protected] | 1Department of Botanical and Environmental Sciences, Guru Nanak Dev University, Amritsar, Punjab