The Impact of Post Harvest Agricultural Crop Residue Fires on Volatile Organic Compounds and Formation of Secondary Air Pollutants in the N.W. Indo-Gangetic Plain

Abstract:

The N.W. Indo-Gangetic Plain (IGP) is an agriculturally and demographically important region of the world. Every year during the post harvest months of April-May and October-November, large scale open burning of wheat straw and paddy straw occurs in the region impairing the regional air quality and resulting in air pollution episodes. Here, using online in-situ measurements from the IISER Mohali Atmospheric Chemistry Facility (Sinha et al., Atmos Chem Phys, 2014), which is located at a regionally representative suburban site in the agricultural state of Punjab, India, we investigated the effects of this activity on gas phase chemistry. The online data pertaining to the pre harvest and post harvest paddy residue fires in 2012, 2013 and 2014 were analyzed to understand the effect of this anthropogenic activity on atmospheric chemistry and regional air quality with respect to health relevant VOCs such as benzenoids and isocyanic acid and trace gases such as ozone and carbon monoxide. These compounds showed marked increases (factor of 2-3 times higher) in their concentrations which correlated with the biomass combustion tracers such as acetonitrile. Emissions from the paddy residue fires did not result in significant enhancement of ambient ozone in 2012 but instead sustained hourly daytime ozone concentrations at ~ 50 ppb during the late post monsoon season, despite decreases in solar radiation and temperature. Results of such massive perturbations to ambient chemical composition, reactivity and formation of secondary pollutants and its implications for human health will be presented in this paper.