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NEW DELHI: A satellite-based climatological study has found that farm fire occurrences increased by 4% over Punjab and Haryana regions during October-November in 10 years between 2007 and 2017. The model-based analysis suggests that there is a high probability of transportation of smoke aerosols from Punjab and Haryana, towards down-wind regions of Delhi, Uttar Pradesh and Bihar. This information was provided by minister of state for department of space Jitendra Singh to the Lok Sabha in a written reply on Wednesday.

Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro) has been carrying out monitoring of stubble burning since 2015 and data generated is comparable to US space agency Nasa products.

The imager payload on board Isro’s Insat-3D & 3DR satellites is used to monitor aerosol optical depth (AOD), which is an indicator of particles and smoke from biomass burning affecting visibility and increase of PM2.5 and PM10 concentration in the atmosphere. It has found that AOD, PM2.5 and PM10 concentrations are higher over the Indo-Gangetic plain covering parts of Delhi, Uttar Pradesh and Bihar during October and November.

INSAT 3D & 3DR imager-based AOD, PM2.5 and PM10 spatial maps are made available on Isro portals airquality.iirs.gov.in and mosdac.gov.in along with other ancillary parameters for visualisation. Using medium resolution Indian Remote Sensing (IRS) satellite data, stubble burned area maps are generated at the end of stubble burning activity in kharif season.

