About SAFAR - System of Air Quality and

Weather Forecasting and Research

Through SAFAR know the City Air Quality- Over all city pollution and Location specific Air
Quality- A relative contribution of different environments in a city
Under the plan scheme Metropolitan Advisories for Cities for Sports, Tourism (Metropolitan Air
Quality and Weather Services), Ministry of Earth Sciences (MoES), Govt. of India, has introduced a
major national initiative, "System of Air Quality and Weather Forecasting and Research" known
as "SAFAR" for greater metropolitan cities of India to provide location specific information on air
quality in near real time and its forecast 1-3 days in advance for the first time in India. It has been
combined with the early warning system on weather parameters.
The SAFAR system is developed by Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology, Pune, along with
ESSO partner institutions namely India Meteorological Department (IMD) and National Centre for
Medium Range Weather Forecasting (NCMRWF).
The implementation of SAFAR is made possible with an active collaboration with local municipal
corporations and various local educational institutions and governmental agencies in that Metro
city.

The ultimate objective of the project is to increase awareness among general public regarding the
air quality in their city well in advance so that appropriate mitigation measures and systematic
action can be taken up for betterment of air quality and related health issues. It engineers awareness
drive by educating public, prompting self-mitigation and also to help develop mitigation strategies
for policy makers.

The system synthesizes data on sources of air pollution, its transport over neighbouring states,
modelling processes, its impact on public health, food, regional climate, to arrive on information
products useful to government agencies as well as citizens. The information to citizens is available
through a mobile application and from project website.

Each of the cities where the system is operational has a dense observational network of ten Air
Quality Monitoring Stations and 30 Automatic Weather Stations which continuously monitor an
array of ambient concentration pollutants, besides parameters like temperature, humidity, wind
speed, wind direction, rainfall and UV radiation. The network covers different microenvironments
such as industrial area, residential area, background site, urban down town area, up wind and
downwind area, commercial area and agricultural area, so that readings are biased towards any
specific air pollution source.

Air Quality monitoring is not an easy task, the common mistake

which any one can do is representing city air quality based on single
station value or single hour data. To provide an AQI representative
of a city, single station data is not suitable. It may even mislead as
it will be biased towards a particular activity or environment. As per
international guidelines, correct way to know ONE index for a city
air quality is to consider different microenvironments. Based on
scientific knowledge one should develop the methodology for the
same. For a typical metro city Background; Commercial; Urban
complex; Sub-urban; Residential; Industrial; Road side; Traffic
junction etc. are the microenvironments which should be covered in
the monitoring network.
The SAFAR observational network of Air Quality Monitoring Stations
(AQMS) and Automatic Weather Stations (AWS) established within
city limits represents selected microenvironments of the city
including industrial, residential, background/ cleaner, urban
complex, agricultural zones etc. as per international guidelines
which ensures the true representation of city environment.
Air Quality indicators are monitored at about 3 m height from the
ground with online sophisticated instruments. These instruments
are operated round the clock and data is recorded and stored at
every 5 minute interval for quality check and further analysis.
Pollutants monitored: PM1, PM2.5, PM10, Ozone, CO, NOx
(NO, NO2), SO2, BC, Methane (CH4), Non-methane
hydrocarbons (NMHC), VOCs, Benzene, Mercury
Monitored Meteorological Parameters: UV Radiation,
Rainfall, Temperature, Humidity, Wind speed, Wind
direction, solar radiation
This is the first of such kind of network in India which continuously
monitors all these parameters and maintain up to date data base
with robust quality control and quality assurance. IITM is grateful to
all their partners who have extended their full cooperation and
support by providing the infrastructure and other facilities.