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Statistical Investigation of Effect of Rainfall on Air Pollutants in the Atmosphere, Haryana State, Northern India

Ram Chhavi Sharma1,, Niharika Sharma2

1Department of Physics, Faculty of Physical Sciences, Shree Guru Gobind Singh Tricentenary (SGT) University Gurgaon, Haryana, India

2Department of Chemistry, Government Senior Secondary School Kakoria Rewari, Haryana, India

American Journal of Environmental Protection. 2018, 6(1), 14-21. DOI: 10.12691/env-6-1-3
Published online: February 25, 2018

Abstract

Urban air pollution is rapidly becoming an environmental problem of public concern worldwide. It can influence public health and local/regional weather and climate. In the present study, the washout effect of rain on surface air pollutants (PM2.5, O3, NOx, NO2, NO ,SO2, and CO) has been investigated over three ambient air quality monitoring stations (Gurugram, Rohtak and Panchkula) in Haryana state in Northern India. The airborne particulate pollutants data were collected by the Haryana State Pollution Control Board (HSPCB) for a period of one year (January 01, 2016 to December 31, 2016) at Vikash Sadan location in Gurugram, MDU location in Rohtak and HSPCB Sector 6 location in Panchkula.. The rainfall data for the study period has been taken from rainfall Statistics in India-2016, India Meteorological Department. The regression correlation analysis has been performed to investigate the effect of rainfall on surface air pollutants. The concentration of air pollutants are found to decrease with increase of rainfall. It has been observed that, PM2.5 is most effected and O3 is least effected by rainfall. Most of the pollutants under study show statistically significant negative correlations between their concentrations and rainfall due to washout and convection but their sensitivity towards rain significantly varies. O3 shows either positive correlation or weak negative correlation with rainfall depending on the meteorological season and observing site.

Keywords:

human health, gaseous pollutants, particulate matters, rainfall, regression analysis
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