Organising Committee XIX Commonwealth Games 2010 Delhi & Earth System Science Organization Ministry of Earth Sciences Government of India PRESS RELEASE AIR QUALITY FORECASTING SYSTEM (SAFAR) AND WEATHER SERVICES FOR THE COMMONWEALTH GAMES, NEW DELHI 2010 India is hosting the XIX Commonwealth Games during 3-14 October, 2010 in New Delhi. The Organising Committee Commonwealth Games 2010 Delhi (OC CWG Delhi 2010) being cognizant of the impact that large sporting events have on the environment, is undertaking focused efforts in prioritizing environmental issues and concerns in planning and delivery of the Games and in this context has reached out to Ministry of Earth Sciences (Government of India). Clean air is considered to be a basic necessity of human health and well-being. Air Quality and Weather affect some or other aspects of sports. These games are declared as the first ever green Commonwealth games . Important issues of concern are the air pollution effects on individuals and potential impacts associated with the outdoor exposure to people. An innovative project “System of Air Quality Forecasting and Research (SAFAR)” has been implemented by the Ministry of Earth Sciences, Govt. of India in association with the Organizing Committee of the Commonwealth Games on the occasion of CWG-2010 New Delhi. This is being done in addition to weather services. The prior knowledge of these parameters will help organizers, managers & athletes prepare and plan efficiently. One of the major objectives of this project is to increase the awareness among general public regarding the air quality of Delhi and to inculcate the feeling of scientific temperament which will eventually pave the way to work towards mitigation and betterment of air we breathe today. MoES has set up 11 Air Quality Monitoring Stations, 35 Automatic weather in NCR along with GPS sonde observations and Doppler Weather Radar. This is for the FIRST TIME that India will have a system for air quality forecasting and New Delhi will be the FIRST CITY in the country to be able to provide, 24 hour advance forecast for criteria pollutants namely Ozone, Oxides of Nitrogen, Carbon Monoxide, Particulate Matters <2.5µm (PM2.5), Particulate Matters < 10µm (PM10), Benzene, Toluene, Xylene, and Black carbon. Now India will be among a few developing nations to take a big leap in this area of environmental research. To realize commitment of hosting the sustainable CWG of organizing committee, the Ministry of Earth Sciences has made elaborate arrangements to monitor, forecast and showcase the air 1 quality and weather information on several locations in Delhi covering most of the competition venues prior and during the games. This system was dedicated to the nation on 22nd September 2010 at 1600 h by Dr. Shailesh Nayak, Secretary, Ministry of Earth Sciences, Govt. of India at the Jawahar Lal Nehru Sports Complex, New Delhi. This SAFAR project involves 4 components to facilitate the current and 24 advance forecasting, namely, (1) The development of emission inventory of air pollutants for NCR and defining air quality index for India. (2) Network of eleven Air Quality Monitoring Stations (AQMS) equipped with 11 automatic weather stations to provide near real time air quality information. (3) The 3-D atmospheric chemistry transport forecasting modeling coupled with weather forecasting model to provide 24 hour advance forecast of air pollutant levels. (4) Display the information on LED and LCD screens located at 20 different locations in Delhi in a public friendly format and displaying the online detailed information through the Web portal developed for CWG as: http://safar.tropmet.res.in/ The weather information on temperature, humidity, wind speed and wind direction is being provided for 3 products as follows: (1) Weather-Now: For near real time weather information (2) Weather Now-casting: To provide 3 hours advance forecast using DWR, satellite, etc. (3) Numerical weather forecast model to provide 24 advance forecast. Air Quality (SAFAR): The Air Quality Index (AQI) is a new public information tool that helps protect public health on a daily basis from the negative effects of air pollution. The Air Quality Index is a scale designed to help public understand what the air quality around them means to their health. The standards for several air pollutants exist in our country but not the AQI. In addition, Emission inventory for the criteria pollutants is an important component of the forecasting model. Team of MoES scientist have evaluated existing air quality standards to define the AQI for India and prepared the emission inventory for criteria pollutant for NCR region. The AQI in the range of 1-100 is defined as "Good" (represented by green color); 101-200 as "Moderate" (Yellow); 201-300 as "Poor" (Orange) and Above 301 as "very Poor" (red). On the occasion of CWG, MoES is releasing two research reports namely (i) "Scientific Evaluation of Air Quality Standards and Defining Air Quality Index for India" and (ii) " Development of High Resolution Emission Inventory of Major Air Pollutants Over NCR Delhi for the Commonwealth Games- 2010"along with launch of SAFAR website (http://safar.tropmet.res.in). Ahead of the Games, air pollution is being monitored across major CWG venue in Delhi over the past three weeks which shows the air quality index (AQI) in the range of good to moderate so far. These days were mainly rainy and cloudy which affect the level of pollutants favorably. A snap shot of PM2.5 forecast for few stadiums is shown in a figure. For details- SAFAR system for the air quality forecasting is developed by the Indian institute of Tropical Meteorology, Pune and weather information and forecasting is done by the India Meteorological Department. Both are constituents of MoES. More information related to the Air quality forecasting system can be obtained by SAFAR- Program Director (Dr. Gufran Beig; IITM, Pune, e-mail: [email protected]; Web: http://safar.tropmet.res.in). Details of weather information can be obtained from Weather program Director Dr. S.C. Bhan (IMD, e-mail: [email protected]; Web: http://www.imd.gov.in) 2 SAFAR –CWG-2010 Delhi Ministry of Earth Sciences, Govt. of India • LOCATIONS OF SAFAR-LED (Outdoor) DISPLAY SCREENS -15 (1) Pusa (IITM Delhi) (2) Yamuna Sports Complex (3) Indira Gandhi Sports Complex (4) M. Dhyan Chand National Stadium (5) Jawaharlal Nehru Sports Complex (2 numbers) (6) Thyagaraj Sports Complex (7) Common Wealth Game Village (8) University of Delhi (9) IGI –Airport (T3) (10) Talkatora Garden (TS + SPMS) (11) Noida Sector-62 (NCMRWF) (12) Siri Fort Sports Complex (13) Lodhi Road (IMD) (14) CGO-Complex (MoES -HQ) • LOCATIONS OF SAFAR-LCD (Indoor) DISPLAY SCREENS -5 (1) Pusa (IITM, Delhi) (2) M. Dhyan Chand National Stadium (3) Jawaharlal Nehru Sports Complex (4) IGI –Airport (T3) (5) CGO-Complex (MoES –HQ) • LOCATIONS OF AIR QUALITY MONITORING STATIONS -11 (1) Pusa (IITM Delhi) (2) Yamuna Sports Complex (3) Indira Gandhi Sports Complex (4) M. Dhyan Chand National Stadium (5) Jawaharlal Nehru Sports Complex (6) Thyagaraj Sports Complex (7) Common Wealth Game Village (8) University of Delhi (9) IGI –Airport (T3) (10) Talkatora Garden (Covering Talkatora + SP Mukherjee Stadiums) (11) Noida Sector-62 (NCMRWF) 3 Schematics of Network of the MoES System developed for CWG-2010 JLNS The air quality forecast for the next 24 hour for Particulate matters < 2.5 micron (PM 2.5 ) at various venues of commonwealth Game provided by SAFAR system (valid for 23th Sept.' 2010). 15 Sept. 16 Sept. 17 Sept. 18 Sept. 19 Sept. Maximum 32 33 35 32 30 Temp. (C) Minimum 25 25 26 26 25 Temp. (C) Weather The weather forecast using the numerical weather forecasting model 4 .