Why does India's air look different from space?

Pedro_P

COPERNICUS SENTINEL DATA 2018/BIRA-IASB/DLR

▼ There is something very distinct about the air over India and the surrounding countries in South Asia.
It is the presence of formaldehyde - a colourless gas that is naturally released by vegetation but also from a number of polluting activities.
The elevated concentrations have been observed by Europe's new Sentinel-5P satellite, which was launched last October to track air quality worldwide.
It is information that will inform policies to clean up the atmosphere.
Compared to the major constituents like nitrogen and oxygen, the formaldehyde signal is actually very small; in every billion air molecules just a few will be CH₂O. But it can be a signifier of more general pollution problems, says Isabelle De Smedt from the Royal Belgian Institute for Space Aeronomy (BIRA-IASB).
"The formaldehyde column is composed of different sorts of volatile organic compounds, and the source can be from vegetation - so, from natural origin - but also from fires and pollution," she told BBC News.
"It depends on the region but 50-80% of the signal is from some biogenic origin. But above that you have pollution and fire. And the fire can be from coal burning or wildfires, but in India, yes, you have a lot of agricultural fires."
India also uses considerable quantities of wood in the home for cooking and heating.
When volatile organic compounds are brought together with nitrogen dioxide (NO₂, from fossil fuel burning) and sunlight, reactions will produce ground-level ozone.
This is a severe respiratory irritant that can lead to significant health problems. (▪ ▪ ▪)

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Amittkumarr

Omg... It's a big alert..!!

u2dlmega

Hope it gets the necessary attention from media for policy makers to take notice of.

Mitu.delghy

Scary.

bsk

oh! thanks for the post