Airmass Trajectories and Long Range Transport of Pollutants: Review of Wet Deposition Scenario in South Asia

Abstract

This paper presents a review of airmass trajectories and their role in air pollution transport. It describes the concept, history, and basic calculation of air trajectories citing various trajectory models used worldwide. It highlights various areas of trajectory applications and errors associated with trajectory calculations. South Asian region receives airmasses from Europe, Middle East, Africa, and Indian Ocean, and so forth, depending upon the season. These airmasses are responsible for export and import of pollutants depositing in nearby states. Trajectory analysis revealed that soil is contributed by the dust storms coming from Oman through Gulf and Iran, while most of black carbon (BC) sources are located in India. A detailed review of trajectories associated with wet deposition events indicated that airmasses coming from Europe and Middle East carry high concentration of acidic pollutants which are deposited in Himalayan ranges. Similarly, trajectory analysis revealed that acidic pollutants from continental anthropogenic sources are transported to an ecosensitive site in Western Ghats in India and the outward fluxes of anthropogenic activities of Indo-Gangetic region are transported towards Bay of Bengal. Hence, transboundary and long range transport of pollutants are very important issues in South Asia which need immediate attention of scientists and policy makers.

Deposition and Impact of Urban Atmospheric Dust on Two Medicinal Plants during Different Seasons in NCR Delhi

“…In addition, long range transport of dust has also been reported from middle-east and African regions (Begum et al, 2011;Ghosh et al, 2014;Kulshrestha and Kumar, 2014). It is worth mentioning that both Ca 2+ and SO 4 2-are the major ions contributed through dustfall.…”

Air Mass Trajectories to Estimate the “Most Likely” Areas to Be Affected by the Release of Hazardous Materials in the Atmosphere—Feasibility Study

“…Air mass trajectory shows the pathway of an infinitesimal air parcel through a centerline of an advected air mass having vertical and horizontal dispersion [11]. Forward trajectory estimates the pathway to be followed by an air parcel downwind from the selected coordinates in due course of time.…”

Long Range Transport and Wet Deposition Fluxes of Major Chemical Species in Snow at Gulmarg in North Western Himalayas (India)

“…There are some, by far very few, papers on the aerosols, rain water and snow geochemistry in the Himalayas (Gajananda et al, 2005;Tiwari et al, 2012;Kuniyal et al, 2013). Also, the comprehensive studies on fresh snowfall chemistry are limited in western Himalayan region of India (Naik et al, 1995;Kulshrestha and Kumar, 2014). Hence, the present study was carried out at Gulmarg to study the chemical characteristics of snow and differentiation of local vs distance sources of pollution.…”

“…(Marinoni et al, 2005). Airmass trajectories combined with Snow chemistry data provide valuable information about the origin of air pollutants (Fleming et al, 2012;Kulshrestha and Kumar, 2014) and their impact on various ecosystems through deposition processes.…”