Environmental Pollution 195 (2014) 276e281

Contents lists available at ScienceDirect

Environmental Pollution
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/envpol

Spatial and temporal patterns of air pollutants in rural and urban areas
of India
Disha Sharma, U.C. Kulshrestha*
School of Environmental Sciences, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, 110067, India

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: In this study, we analysed spatial and temporal patterns of Suspended Particulate Matter (SPM) con-
Received 24 February 2014 centrations across India. We have also assessed MODIS-derived aerosol optical depth (AOD) variations to
Received in revised form characterize the air quality and relate it to SPM, NO2 and SO2 in different areas. In addition, the pollutant
30 July 2014
concentrations have been mapped using geospatial techniques. The results indicated significant differ-
Accepted 26 August 2014
ences in air pollutant levels across rural and urban areas. In general, districts of central and northern
Available online 20 September 2014
India had relatively higher SPM concentrations compared to southern India. Out of the top ten SPM
polluted districts in India, nine were located in the state of Uttar Pradesh (UP). We observed significant
Keywords:
Air quality parameters
correlations between the SPM and AOD at different sites. Although spatial and temporal patterns of NO2
SO2 and SO2 matched AOD patterns, the correlation strength (r2) varied based on location. The causes and
NO2 implications of these findings are presented.
SPM © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
AOD
Satellite data

1. Introduction atmosphere as they scatter radiation (Charlson et al., 1992, 1999).

The presence of particulate matter in the atmosphere can be
attributed to both natural as well as anthropogenic processes.
The nature of aerosols found in the Indian region may be
different from those reported in the other parts of the world
(Kulshrestha et al., 2001, 1999; Kafatos et al., 2006). Previously,
atmospheric aerosols in Indian region were reported to have
significant amounts of soil dust and carbonaceous compounds
affecting radiative properties of atmosphere (Kulshrestha et al.,
2009; Parashar et al., 2005). High loadings and re-suspension
of soil dust lead to high levels of suspended particulate matter
(SPM) in the Indian region (Kulshrestha, 2013). The incidents of
forest fires also contribute significantly to the emission of
carbonaceous aerosols in the country (Vadrevu et al., 2012).
Radiative effect of atmospheric aerosols is believed to be of the
same magnitude as greenhouse gases (Andreae, 2001). Aerosol
components such as black carbon (BC) (Babu et al., 2002), are
known to have a warming effect on global climate due to ab-
sorption of radiation, whereas others such as, sulphate, organic
matter (OM) and mineral matter, cause cooling in the
* Corresponding author.
E-mail address: umeshkulshrestha@gmail.com (U.C. Kulshrestha).
Fossil fuel consumption and vehicular emissions along with large
industrial point sources add to elevated aerosol fluxes over
northern and western India (Reddy and Venkataraman, 2002).
The unique variation of energy use across different regions gives
rise to temporal and spatial patterns of aerosols distribution over
India affecting aerosol optical depth (AOD). AOD is a quantitative
measure of the extinction of solar radiation by aerosol scattering
and absorption between the point of observation and the top of
the atmosphere. It is a measure of the integrated columnar
aerosol load and the single most important parameter for eval-
uating direct radiative forcing (Kaufman et al., 1997). AOD can be
determined from the ground through measurements of the
spectral transmission of solar radiation through the atmosphere
using rather simple and relatively inexpensive instruments
pointed directly at the sun called sun-photometers or filter ra-
diometers. Routine ground based AOD observations are of
utmost importance for the calibration and validation of AOD
retrievals from satellites (Chu et al., 2002; Ichoku et al., 2002).
In this study, we present the spatial and temporal variations in
SPM over the Indian region. We report typical SPM values and
MODIS-derived AOD, in different districts of India and compare
levels of SPM in southern and northern India. Relationship between
AOD and SPM has also been explored. In addition, we also assessed
the relationship between AOD and other pollutants such as SO2 and
NO2.

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.envpol.2014.08.026
0269-7491/© 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
 D. Sharma, U.C. Kulshrestha / Environmental Pollution 195 (2014) 276e281
2. Methodology
2.1. Study sites and pollution data
For analysis of the spatial distribution of SPM over the Indian
region, eighty-nine districts were selected. These are the districts
where ground monitoring of particulate matter is carried out by
the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB). AOD was derived for
nineteen districts mostly from central and southern parts of the
country. The number was brought down to nineteen from eighty-
nine for the ease of calculations. The nineteen districts where
AOD variations were studied were further classified as rural and
urban. CPCB monitoring sites that are located in the cities were
termed as urban. Sites without any important source of anthro-
pogenic emissions in the neighbourhood (approximately 10 km
buffer) were termed rural and are representative of the sur-
rounding countryside. More specifically, out of the nineteen dis-
tricts, four were classified as rural: Palakkad (Kerala), Dimapur
(Nagaland), Rayagada (Orissa), Tirupathi (Andhra Pradesh) and
the rest as urban. Rural sites are the places with relatively low
population density and industrial activities. The other fifteen
districts were classified as urban because of high industrial den-
sity contributing to a high level of emissions. A comparison be-
tween AOD, SO2, NO2 and other pollutants was also made at the
rural and urban sites.
2.2. MODIS aerosol optical depth (AOD)
We used the MODIS Collection (MYD08_M3.051) 5.1 AOD at
550 nm for characterizing AOD variations. MODIS acquires daily
Fig. 1. Variation of SPM over Indian region for the year 2004.
277
global data in 36 spectral bands from visible to thermal infrared (29
spectral bands with 1 km 5 spectral bands with 500 m. and 2
spectral bands with 250 m. nadir pixel dimensions). The MODIS
sensor is on-board the polar orbiting NASA-EOS Terra and Aqua
satellites with equator crossing times of 10:30 and 13:30 Local Solar
Time, respectively. Aerosol retrievals from MODIS data are per-
formed over land and ocean surfaces by means of two separate
algorithms described in literature (Kaufman and Tanre. 1998;
Kaufman et al., 2005). The aerosol properties are derived by the
inversion of the MODIS-observed reflectance using pre-computed
radiative transfer look-up tables based on aerosol models (Remer
et al., 2005; Levy et al., 2007). For this study, we specifically used
the Level 3 monthly mean product from Aqua spanning different
districts to understand spatial and temporal variations in relation to
SPM. The data is available online and obtained from https://lpdaac.
usgs.gov/lpdaac/get_data/wist etc.
2.3. Data analysis
In order to characterize aerosol distribution over the Indian
region, SPM values for all three years viz. 2004, 2005, 2006 were
obtained from the CPCB, Government of India (http://www.cpcb.
in), and were mapped using ArcMap (version 9.3). Values for SO2
and NO2 were also obtained from CPCB for the year 2005 which
were used to find out the correlation between other air quality
parameters. In the analysis, air quality data was also correlated with
the population densities of the districts (Fig. 8a,b) obtained from
the population census (http://censusindia.gov.in/2011-prov-re-
sults/data_files/). Corresponding to SPM data for different districts,
MODIS AOD data were obtained from LPDAAC website for analysing
correlations (see Fig. 9).
Fig. 2. Variation of SPM over Indian region for the year 2005.
278 D. Sharma, U.C. Kulshrestha / Environmental Pollution 195 (2014) 276e281

3. Results and discussion

3.1. SPM variation over India

SPM data from ground monitoring systems in over eighty nine

districts in India were obtained for a period of three years, i.e.,
2004e2006, from CPCB (available online at http://cpcb.nic.in).
The data were then mapped using GIS software for spatial and
temporal representation of SPM levels over the Indian region
(Figs. 1e4).
Spatial and temporal patterns of particulate matter varied
significantly across India. While studying the SPM distribution over
the country, a very clear spatial distribution pattern was observed.
The AOD patterns followed a similar trend in all three years, with
the highest concentrations of aerosols in the Indo-Gangetic region.
Similar results were reported by Singh et al. (2006).

3.2. Districts with the highest and lowest levels of SPM

The sites that showed the highest particulate loadings during all
three years were found in the heavily populated as well as polluted
northern part of India (Figs. 5&7a). Nine of the top ten districts
having highest aerosol concentrations in the country were located
in the state of Uttar Pradesh (UP). UP covers a major portion of the
Indo-Gangetic plains in the northern part of the country and is the
third largest Indian state with a very high population density of
approximately 845/km2 (population census 2011, Govt. of India).
High levels of SPM are primarily due to high re-suspension of soil
dust into the atmosphere. Due to predominantly dry weather
conditions in the Indian region, the top soil is eroded and blown

Fig. 4. Average variation of SPM over Indian region from 2004 to 2006.

into the air, contributing to high aerosol loading in the region

(Kulshrestha, 2013). It was interesting to note that most of the sites
having low particulate values are located in coastal areas in the
southern part of India (Figs. 6 &7b). This could be due to wet
weather conditions that cleanse the pollutants and aerosol load-
ings. These places also have a low population density.

Fig. 3. Variation of SPM over Indian region for the year 2006. Fig. 5. Places with highest SPM in all three years.
 D. Sharma, U.C. Kulshrestha / Environmental Pollution 195 (2014) 276e281 279

that population density can be treated as a surrogate variable of

anthropogenic pollution.

3.4. Comparison of AOD with other air quality parameters

Particulate and seasonal AOD values of nineteen districts for the

Fig. 6. Places with lowest SPM in all three years.
3.3. Relation of SPM with population density
Population densities correlated positively with the SPM both in
the regions having high SPM values (r2 ¼ 0.62) as well as low SPM
values (r2 ¼ 0.63) for the three years (Fig. 8a, b). Our results suggest
year 2005 over various sites are given in Table 1. Data show that
AOD and SPM had good correlation with NO2 and SO2, especially in
urban areas. Data for rural areas could not be computed as the
concentration of SO2 was recorded below detectable limit (BDL). In
urban and rural areas, a strong positive correlation of AOD values
was observed with the NO2 values (r2 ¼ 0.79 for urban), whereas
SO2 did not show significant correlation. This may be due to
vehicular emissions as a common source of particulate matter and
NO2 (Badarinath et al., 2010) while SO2 is mostly contributed by
fossil fuel burning.
The AOD values for the urban districts showed a positive cor-
relation (r2 ¼ 0.54) with the SPM values. This can be attributed to
higher levels of industrial and vehicular pollution which contrib-
utes more SPM in the cities (Chu et al., 2003; Singh et al., 2006).
Relatively, higher concentrations of particulate matter over such
areas resulted in higher AOD; in contrast, rural areas have low in-
dustrial and anthropogenic emissions resulting in low particulate
concentrations, thus less AOD and the negative correlation
(r2 ¼ 0.73) between SPM and AOD. These findings match with the

Fig. 7. a) SPM variation in places with the highest recorded SPM values in three years from 2004 to 2006. b) SPM variation in places with the lowest recorded SPM values in three
years from 2004 to 2006.

Fig. 8. a) Correlation graphs of SPM versus population density for the places that recorded the highest values of SPM in India in three years. Viz. 2004e2006. b) Correlation graphs
of SPM versus population density for the places that recorded the lowest values of SPM in India in three years. viz. 2004e2006.
280 D. Sharma, U.C. Kulshrestha / Environmental Pollution 195 (2014) 276e281

Fig. 9. a) SPM versus AOD graph for urban areas. b) SPM versus AOD graph for rural areas.

earlier work reported for various rural and urban sites in the
country (Badarinath and Latha, 2005).
3.5. Seasonal patterns of AOD
The seasonal pattern of mapped aerosol data showed similar
results for rural and urban areas (Fig. 10a, b). All districts showed an
upsurge in aerosol concentrations just before the monsoon season
in India which precisely increases from March to July with a peak
during mid-April. Such upsurge may be attributed to summer heat
and higher winds, which cause an increase in suspension of loose
soil material (Dey et al., 2004; Singh et al., 2004; Babu et al., 2009).
The resultant vertical mixing of windblown dust makes AOD values
high in summer season. Another important factor contributing to
the high AOD during dry months is the influence of BC which
constitutes ~15% of total aerosol mass concentration (Badarinath
and Latha, 2005). BC is released from combustion activities dur-
ing summer activities in addition to other anthropogenic activities
such as increased power requirement in the summers, with emis-
sions also increasing at higher temperatures (Chen et al., 2001).
Also, in the dry and hot season, incidents of forest fires become
more prevalent (Prasad et al., 2000; Badarinath et al., 2009). All
these factors contribute to the concentrations of high coarse mode
particles which gives rise to high AOD values in summers. There
was a sharp decrease in the AOD values with the lowest values seen
in the months of September and October. Precipitation received
during monsoons helps in the wet deposition of suspended par-
ticulate matter. Thus AOD values plummet right after the season.
The decrease in values can be attributed to the role of upper winds
and cloud scavenging as reported by earlier researchers (Kaskaoutis
et al., 2010). The concentration of particulate matter in the air again
builds up during the winter season which can be attributed to rice-
residue burning activities (Vadrevu et al., 2011, 2013) and bon fires
(Fig. 10a, b).
4. Conclusion
SPM and AOD variations were analysed over selected sites in the
Indian region using ground based and satellite data respectively.
Our analysis suggested higher abundance of concentrations in
north India due to resuspension of soil dust. Out of the top ten SPM
polluted districts in India, nine were located in the state of Uttar
Pradesh. The southern part of the country had relatively clean
environment in terms of total particulate pollution. Strong corre-
lation between SPM and AOD was observed in urban areas in

Table 1
Data for the year 2005 and number of places (n ¼ 19; urban ¼ 15, rural ¼ 4).

Places SPM Annual Summer Monsoon Winter

(mg/m3) average AOD AOD AOD
AOD

Urban
Salem 72.00 0.29 0.32 0.41 0.14
Solapur 333.00 0.45 0.54 0.50 0.30
Vishakhapatnam 186.20 0.33 0.40 0.38 0.22
Pune 218.00 0.39 0.37 0.56 0.23
Nashik 193.00 0.37 0.33 0.57 0.21
Chandrapur 139.80 0.37 0.38 0.49 0.22
Cuttack 179.50 0.39 0.46 0.43 0.28
Nagpur 222.20 0.31 0.33 0.38 0.20
Raipur 309.30 0.37 0.44 0.44 0.24
Rajkot 241.50 0.41 0.40 0.57 0.26
Bhopal 170.00 0.33 0.37 0.38 0.25
Ranchi 167.00 0.33 0.36 0.38 0.25
Patna 278.00 0.62 0.69 0.64 0.58
Jodhpur 329.70 0.22 0.04 0.34 0.28
Noida 409.50 0.67 0.64 0.84 0.54
Rural
Palakkad 173.00 0.30 0.33 0.35 0.22
Tirupathi 69.00 0.32 0.27 0.30 0.20
Rayagada 153.50 0.25 0.38 0.27 0.10
Fig. 10. a) Seasonal variation of AOD at Palakkad, rural site. b) Seasonal variation of
Dimapur 183.30 0.21 0.33 0.17 0.14
AOD at Chandrapur, urban site.
 D. Sharma, U.C. Kulshrestha / Environmental Pollution 195 (2014) 276e281
contrast to rural areas. Seasonal analysis of AOD values revealed
that the summer season had the highest AOD values. Although
spatial and temporal patterns of NO2 and SO2 matched AOD pat-
terns, these correlations were site specific. Apart from climatic
impacts, high levels of SPM and other pollutants in north India
might have a severe health effects which need further
investigations.
Acknowledgements
We thank Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR)
and Department of Science (DST) e PURSE fund, for extending their
financial support. We also thank the editors for providing useful
comments and suggestions.
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