Environ Monit Assess DOI 10.1007/s10661-013-3102-x The impact assessment of Diwali fireworks emissions on the air quality of a tropical urban site, Hyderabad, India, during three consecutive years Venkata Swamy Yerramsetti & Anu Rani Sharma & Nikhil Gauravarapu Navlur & Venkanna Rapolu & N. S. K. Chitanya Dhulipala & P. R. Sinha Received: 15 June 2012 /Accepted: 16 January 2013 # Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht 2013 Abstract Diwali is one of the largest festivals for attributed to firecrackers burning. The high correlation Hindu religion which falls in the period October– coefficient (~0.74) between NOx and SO2 concentra- November every year. During the festival days, exten- tions and higher SO2/NOx (S/N) index suggested air sive burning of firecrackers takes place, especially in quality degradation due to firecrackers burning. the evening hours, constituting a significant source of Furthermore, the Cloud–Aerosol Lidar and Infrared aerosols, black carbon (BC), organics, and trace gases. Pathfinder Satellite Observation-derived aerosol sub- The widespread use of sparklers was found to be typing map also confirmed the presence of smoke associated with short-term air quality degradation aerosols emitted from firecrackers burning over the events. The present study focuses on the influence of region. Nevertheless, the concentration level of pollu- Diwali fireworks emissions on surface ozone (O3), tants exhibited substantial decline over the region during nitrogen oxides (NOx), and BC aerosol concentration the years 2010 and 2011 compared to 2009 ascribed to over the tropical urban region of Hyderabad, India various awareness campaigns and increased cost of during three consecutive years (2009–2011). The trace firecrackers. gases are analyzed for pre-Diwali, Diwali, and post- Diwali days in order to reveal the festivity’s contribu- Keywords Diwali . Fireworks . Trace gases . Air tion to the ambient air quality over the city. A twofold quality . Pollution to threefold increase is observed in O3,NOx,and BC concentrations during the festival period compared to control days for 2009–2011, which is mainly Introduction Air quality in megacities and other major population V. S. Yerramsetti (*) : A. R. Sharma : centers is a serious concern due to their high pollutant N. Gauravarapu Navlur : V. Rapolu : N. S. K. C. Dhulipala concentrations and health hazards. In recent times, Bioengineering and Environmental Centre, short-term air quality degradation episodes are gaining Indian Institute of Chemical Technology, Hyderabad, India increased attention of the scientific community as they e-mail: [email protected] considerably affect human health due to their long- term negative effects (Pope et al. 2002; Nastos et al. P. R. Sinha 2010; Samoli et al. 2011). Recreational use of fire- National Balloon Facility, Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, works to celebrate festivities all over the world is Hyderabad, India among the most unusual source of short-term Environ Monit Assess anthropogenic pollution which causes serious health these campaigns includes increasing the level of hazards. To this respect, specific air quality degrada- awareness among the public on the toxic effects of tion has been reported due to bursting of firecrackers firecrackers on human health and environment as well. on Diwali festival in India (Kulshrestha et al. 2004; As indicated by a report of the Central Pollution Mandal et al. 2011), Lantern festival in China (Wang Control Board, New Delhi, a decreasing pattern is et al. 2007), Independence Day in USA (Liu et al. observed in firecrackers burning during Diwali festival 1997), and New Year’s Day (Drewnick et al. 2006). due to increased awareness among the public and Diwali is one of the most important, hugely antic- increasing cost of firecrackers over a period of time ipated, and enormously cherished festivals celebrated (http://expressbuzz.com/cities/hyderabad/Festival-of- across India; Diwali festival usually occurs in late lights-a-quiet-affair/). October/early November and is celebrated for three In the present study, O3, NOx, SO2, and BC aerosol consecutive days. Huge amounts of crackers and spar- mass concentrations were closely monitored during klers are burned mainly on the day of the festival the festival event of Diwali for a period of 3 years (Diwali day) and also on the day before and after (17 October 2009, 5 November 2010, and 26 October Diwali (considered as pre-Diwali and post-Diwali 2011, i.e., 2009–2011). Multiple satellite data products day). Trace gases (O3, SO2, and NOx) and black car- and ground-based observations were integrated in or- bon (BC) particulates emitted by fireworks generate der to assess the air quality over the region. dense clouds of smoke that contain black powder (potassium nitrate, charcoal, and sulfur). Further, depending upon the meteorological conditions, these Study area fireworks emissions reduce visibility to a large extent and generate a dense cloud of smoke, for time inter- The experimental site was located at 17.47° N and vals, up to several hours. Several studies have been 78.58° E and at an altitude of 536 m above mean sea performed related to Diwali fireworks over different level, at Tata Institute of Fundamental Research— regions in India (Babu and Moorthy 2001; Balloon Facility (TIFR-BF), Hyderabad, Andhra Kulshrestha et al. 2004; Barman et al. 2008; Singh et Pradesh, India. The climate of this region is semiarid al. 2010; Mandal et al. 2011). The study conducted by with a total rainfall amount of∼700 mm occurring Barman et al. 2008 reported 5.7, 6.6, and 2.7 times mostly during the monsoon season in the period higher concentrations of PM10, SO2, and NOx, respec- June–October. The climatology of this area experien- tively, on Diwali day as compared to their concentra- ces four dominant seasons, winter (December– tion on a normal day in Lucknow city, India, and they February), pre-monsoon (March–May), monsoon were higher than the prescribed limit of the National (June–September), and post-monsoon (October– Ambient Air Quality Standard. Attri et al. (2001) November) (Badarinath et al. 2010). reported nighttime formation of O3 at the ground level even when O3 precursors and sunlight were absent. Additionally, studies by Khaiwal et al. (2003), Datasets and methodology Nishanth et al. (2012), Thakur et al. (2010), Kulshrestha et al. (2004), Sarkar et al. (2010), and Ground-based measurements Singh et al. (2010) also highlighted the increase in pollutant levels, such as SO2,NO2,O3,totalsus- Synchronous measurements of trace gases, viz. sur- pended particulate matter (TSP), trace metals, and face O3, NOx, and SO2, were carried out using O3 BC aerosols during the period. analyzer (49i; Thermo Scientific, USA), NOx analyzer As festivals are becoming significant contributors (42i; Thermo Scientific, USA), and SO2 analyzer (43i; to air pollution in India, there is increased awareness Thermo Scientific, USA) respectively. The trace gases about its negative impact as well. Further, numerous in ambient air were measured simultaneously for every environmental groups and eco clubs are coming up 5-min interval and averaged to attain hourly and daily with their awareness campaigns and raising their voi- concentrations. ces against pyrotechnics display of fireworks during O3 analyzer works on the principle that O3 mole- Diwali festivity celebrations. The main concern of cules absorb ultraviolet (UV) light at a wavelength of Environ Monit Assess 254 nm. NOx analyzer operates on the principle that The CALIPSO payload consists of three instruments: NO and O3 react to produce a characteristic lumines- the Cloud–Aerosol Lidar with Orthogonal Polarization cence with intensity linearly proportional to the NO (CALIOP), an imaging infrared radiometer, and a concentration. SO2 analyzer operates on the principle moderate spatial resolution wide field-of-view camera. that SO2 absorb UV light and become excited at one CALIOP provides profiles of backscatter at 532 and wavelength, then decay to a lower energy state emit- 1,064 nm, as well as two orthogonal (parallel and ting UV light at a different wavelength. The detailed perpendicular) polarization components at 532 nm. description of analyzers is presented elsewhere In the present study, we used level 1B datasets which (Swamy et al. 2012). contain a half orbit of calibrated and geolocated Lidar In addition, continuous and near real-time measure- profiles including vertical feature mask (VFM), total ments of BC aerosol mass concentration were carried attenuated backscatter (TAB) at 532 nm, attenuated out using an aethalometer (AE-21, Magee Scientific color ratio (ACR) of bands 532 and 1,064 nm, and USA) (Cooke et al. 1997;Badarinathetal.2009) aerosol subtype map. The vertical resolution of the during the Diwali period of three consecutive years, retrievals is 30 m. A detailed discussion of CALIOP i.e., 2009–2011. More details about aethalometer use data products has been described elsewhere (Powell et and estimates of BC concentrations can be found else- al. 2009). where (Sreekanth et al. 2007; Das and Jayaraman 2011 and references therein). Furthermore, in order to MODIS active fire locations quantify anthropogenic emissions, Delta C values (UVBC370 nm − BC880 nm) were calculated from a Fire observations are performed four times a day from the seven-channel BC aethalometer. The Delta C values are Terra (1030 and 1230) and Aqua (1330 and 0130) plat- suggested to be a strong indicator of emissions sources, forms. MODIS fire detection is performed using a con- such as biomass burning, anthropogenic emissions, and textual algorithm (Giglio et al. 2003)thatexploitsthe forest fire emissions (Wang et al. 2011b, c, d). Besides, strong emission of mid-infrared radiation from fires. The Gadhavi and Jayaraman (2010) highlighted that the UV algorithm uses brightness temperatures derived from the channel plays an important role in separating wood MODIS 4- and 11-μm channels. The description of smoke emissions from diesel exhausts, while the wave- MODIS fire products retrieval has been provided else- length dependence of the absorption coefficient is a where (Giglio et al.