U N D E R S TA N D I N G T H E R O L E O F AT M O S P H E R I C

C I R C U L AT I O N S
A N D D I S P E R S I O N O F A I R P O L L U T I O N A S S O C I AT E D W I T H
EXTREME
SMOG EVENTS OVER SOUTH ASIAN MEGACITY
 INTRODUCTION

• The fog and smog events were analyzed for years 2016 to 2017 in Lahore compared with
November 2022 trajectory ; the second-largest city of Pakistan lies in the northeastern
Punjab . Lahore is Punjab’s provincial capital and one of the most polluted cities of Pakistan.
• Lahore is facing major episodes of smog for the past many years and declared as the world’s
second most polluted city, after New Delhi by the air quality information platform of
Switzerland.
• There are 15,000 industrial units in Lahore with four million vehicles traveling on daily basis
in the city as of 2016 study.
• The climate of Lahore is semiarid with five major seasons that include spring, summer, rainy
monsoon, dry autumn, and foggy winter.At the start of the winter months, thick and
widespread fog events frequently occur in Lahore
• The presence of low-level inversion, smoke released from massive industrial
units, and transportation act as condensation nuclei and triggered the smog
phenomenon. As a result, human activity is disrupted through road accidents,
health fatalities, and delays or cancelation of flights that lead to loss of
economy
 FOG AND SMOG

• FOG
• Fog is caused by water droplets in the air.
• It reduces visibility but breathing in fog cause no harm
• Color of fog is white
• smog
• And smog is smoke +fog . Smog, or smoke fog, is a type of intense air pollution.
• Breathing in smog can cause eye irritation asthma and decrease lungs breathing capacity
• Color of smog is usually blackish but may change depending on other pollutant in the
atmosphere
 OVERVIEW OF HYSPLIT

• The Hybrid Single-Particle Lagrangian Integrated Trajectory (HYSPLIT) model of Air

Resource Laboratory, developed at National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
(NOAA) was used for backward air parcel trajectories. The main purpose to draw the
air parcel trajectories was to find the source/regionof air pollutants. The HYSPLIT
model is a complete system for computing simple air parcel trajectories, as well as
complex transport, dispersion, chemical transformation,and deposition simulations that
allow plotting trajectories for the user-specified period. A common application is a
back trajectory analysis that is used to determine the origin of air masses and establish
source-receptor relationships
• Backward trajectory :arriving at receptor(where did it come from).
• Forward trajectory :leaving source area(where it going ).
MODEL DETAILS
N OV EM B ER BAC KWAR D T R A J EC TO R I ES 2 0 2 2
• Backward trajectory 15 nov and 25 nov 2022 .backward trajectery come from
northwest and from west. I check this in maps not exactly but from the peshwer
side that is why the Lahore side is little cooler in temperature .
N OV E M B ER FO RWA R D TR A JEC TOR I ES 2 0 2 2
• Forward trajectory from 15 nov and 25 nov 2022. and trajectory come from
south east and south side.
B A C KWA R D T R A J EC TO R I E S O F R ES E A R C H PA P E R 2 0 1 6
• Figure 8a, b shows backward trajectories over Lahore from November 13 to 15
2016 and November 23 to 25 2016 with a time interval of 6 h at 100, 200, and
500 m above ground level (m AGL). The backward trajectories could help to
identify the potential source locations from Indian Haryana and Punjab states.
However, it is evident from Fig. 8 that the sources of trajectories were westerly
and northwesterly in November 2016 and none of the exit of the source on the
Indian side.
D EC E M B E R BAC KWA R D T R A J EC TO R I ES O F R ES EA RC H
PA PE R 2 0 1 6
• On the other hand, the backward trajectory sources for December 8 to 10, 2016, below
200 m AGL were originated from the southeast direction (see Fig. 9a).
• Though the trajectory source includes potential crop burning sites in Indian Haryana and
Punjab, however, at this time of foggy winter season, no crop burning occurred across
the border. Therefore, the cause of smog in persistent winter fog during December 2016
was not smoke due to crop burning across the border; rather, it could be due to pollution
from local
• transport or industry. Figure 9b represents that the trajectories were again westerly and
northwesterly from December 18 to 20, 2016. We observed a southeasterly backward
trajectory at 100 and 200 m AGL in the second week of November 2017 which became
easterly as soon as deflected from the Himalaya mountain barrier
NOVEMBER BACKWARD TRAJECTORY
2017
• Fig. 10a). also reported the high aerosol transport associated with stubble
burning in Indo Gangetic Plan (IGP) from India towards Pakistan due to
easterly wind direction during October and November fog episodes. These
aerosol pollutants are hygroscopic in the presence of high relative humidity and
can act as CNN for fog/haze formation.The backward air trajectory at 500 m
AGL was appeared to be southwesterly.
• In the third week of November 2017, the trajectories were westerly and
northwesterly below 200 m AGL and southwesterly at 500 m AGL (see Fig.
10b).
• Resolution Imaging and Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Aqua
Satellite captured on November 7, 2017, shows the fog (haze) over Pakistan
and India (Fig. 11a) and the crop stubble burning hotspots with red-brown
colors (Fig. 11b). This was the peak time of crop burning in Indian Haryana
and Punjab and potential smoke could be transported across the border and
increase the pollution level in Lahore (Fig. 11a, b).
D EC EM B ER BAC KWAR D T R A J EC TO R I ES OF RESEA RCH
PA P ER 2 0 1 7
• Similar backward trajectories were found in the second and third weeks of
December 2017 over Lahore (Fig. 12a, b). We concluded that wintertime fog
and smog events depend on local and regional meteorological conditions such
as wind patterns, relative humidity and dew point temperature which change
from year to year. Therefore, the timing of crop burning and prevailing winds
play an important role in air pollution dispersion under the stable atmospheric
condition in the foggy winter season
 CONCLUSION

• Conclusion
• The smoke emitted from road transport, industry, and particularly from stubble crop
burring over northeastern Pakistan and the Indian state of Haryana and Punjab is
confined near the ground due to temperature inversion and the prevailing weather
pattern in the winter season. we characterized the local and regional meteorological
conditions that favored the fog and smog formation for two winter episodes, i.e.,
EV-2016 and EV-2017 using ERA5 reanalysis data at different vertical pressure
levels over Lahore and surrounding regions. NOAA’S HYSPLIT backward air.
trajectories were computed using GDAS meteorological data over Lahore during
two winter fog episodes.comparing this result from November forward trajectory.