The European Space Agency (ESA) on Friday released satellite images, which show alarming levels of pollution in the national capital region on November 10 – the day air pollution in Delhi and its surrounding areas reached the hazardous levels.
The European Space Agency (ESA) on Friday released satellite images, which show alarming levels of pollution in the national capital region on November 10 – the day air pollution in Delhi and its surrounding areas reached the hazardous levels.
Hindustan Times reported that the images were captured by the ESA’s Sentinel-5P satellite, the sixth for the EC Copernicus environmental monitoring programme, but the first dedicated to monitoring earth’s atmosphere.
Satellite images released by the European Space Agency
Some of the first data have been used to create a global map of carbon monoxide. The animation shows high levels of this air pollutant over parts of Asia, Africa and South America.
Sentinel-5P also reveals high levels of pollution from power plants in India, ESA said in a press release.
The smog in the city had been caused by several conditions. These include the pollutants that come from Punjab that is the result of stubble burning, and the others from eastern Uttar Pradesh that come through moisture in the air. The pollutants collide at higher altitudes and this, minus ground wind level, had resulted in the smog-like situation in the national capital between November 6 and 14.
The natural factors compounded the pollution which has other sources such as thermal power plant emissions, vehicular exhaust fumes and construction dust, which ensure poor air quality across the Indo-Gangetic belt throughout winter.
The Centre had set December 7 as the deadline for old thermal power plants commissioned before January 1, 2017, to meet stricter emission norms with regard to particulate matter, nitrogen oxides (NOx) and sulphur oxides (SOx).
On December 1, air pollution in Delhi rose and returned to levels recorded immediately after the severe smog episode in November, according to the Central Pollution Control Board’s (CPCB) data.
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