Connecting Crop Productivity, Residue Fires, and Air Quality over Northern India.

ABSTRACT: Northwestern India is known as the "breadbasket" of the country producing two-thirds of food grains, with wheat and rice as the principal crops grown under the crop rotation system. Agricultural data from India indicates a 25% increase in the post-monsoon rice crop production in Punjab during 2002-2016. NASA's A-train satellite sensors detect a consistent increase in the vegetation index (net 21%) and post-harvest agricultural fire activity (net ~60%) leading to nearly 43% increase in aerosol loading over the populous Indo-Gangetic Plain in northern India. The ground-level particulate matter (PM_2.5) downwind over New Delhi shows a concurrent uptrend of net 60%. The effectiveness of a robust satellite-based relationship between vegetation index-a proxy for crop amounts, and post-

SUBMITTER: Jethva H 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6851147 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature