US satellites find cause of winter pollution in north India

New Delhi, Mar 8:
American have found the reason for haze and smog during winter that leads to cancellation of and brings day-to-day life to a standstill in north India.Analysis of data from instruments onboard satellites has shown that ash from coal-fired thermal power plants is the main culprit.The found that aerosols (particulate matter) in the northern plains, especially Bihar and Uttar Pradesh, pollute the air and create haze in the entire Indo-Gangetic basin and not bio-fuel or burning cow-dung as previously thought. About 600 million people live in this basin.The joint Indo-US study was carried out by Professor Ramesh Singh and his Anup Krishna Prasad of the Department of Civil Engineering in IIT Kanpur and Professor Menas Kafatos of the George Mason , US.Their report was today in the online edition of 'Geophysical Research Letter', the prestigious journal of the American Union.Singh's group analysed the MODIS and MISR satellite data and found very high "aerosol optical depth" - a measure of particulate pollution - especially over the coal-burning thermal power plants in the Ganges basin."These power plants use thousands of tons of very low grade coal daily (with 30-45 per cent ash content)," Singh told PTI

North India cold

After a relatively warmer beginning to the New Year, it is back to the typical winter shivers, as large parts of the plains of North and West India reel under a severe cold wave.

In Delhi, going to school or office on Tuesday morning felt worse than usual. It was the coldest in five years.

Adampur near Jalandhar in Punjab was the coldest place in the northern India plains on Monday with the temperature touching minus three degrees Celsius.

Temperatures in nearby Amritsar touched minus one degree and large parts of Haryana also reeled under the cold wave with temperatures between one and five degrees below normal.

Further North, Srinagar is freezing at minus five degrees. And Jammu is virtually paralysed. While the hill states of Jammu and Kashmir and Himachal continued to see their regular share of sub-zero temperatures and rain and snow.

The plains from Kolkata to Kutch were also caught in the grip of the cold with temperatures around one degree.

Almost rain

From 24-Jan-08 to till date there's lot of activities for rain.
On 26-Jan it almost rained... and the subsequent day also.
There was no cold whatsoever....
The minimum temperature was around 24.0°C this is very high as the Month is concerned.
Even the high is even higher at 33.3°C... i think this is a record temperatures for the month of January.
Moreover North-India is reeling under a severe cold weather, even the schools are shut till Sunday (3-Feb-08).
Take a look at the temperature forecast for next 7 days... It shows the present temperature is going to rise..