Assessment of Spatio-Temporal Variations of Particulate Matter and Gaseous Pollutants in The Port City, Paradip, East Coast of India

This study aims to assess the spatial and temporal variations of aerosol pollutants within the nine selected ambient air monitoring stations, including residential, commercial, and industrial sites in Paradip city based on two seasons, i.e., winter and summer, from January 2019 to June 2019. The particulate matter (PM) like PM₁₀ and PM_2.5 and gaseous pollutants like sulphur dioxide (SO₂), nitrogen dioxide (NO₂), and ammonia (NH₃) samples were collected at each monitoring stations. The 24-hour average concentrations of PM₁₀ and PM_2.5 showed the highest levels in the winter season and lowest in the summer season. The value exceeded the permissible limit of India-national ambient air quality standards (IND-NAAQS) at all the monitoring stations. The 24-hour average concentrations of SO₂, NO₂, and NH₃ did not exceed the permissible limits at all the sites during the study period.  The air quality was estimated in terms of the air quality index (AQI) by analysing the aerosol pollutants concentration like PM₁₀, PM_2.5, SO₂, NO₂, and NH₃. Linear regression analysis (LRA) to evaluate the percentage contribution of each aerosol pollutant to AQI. Particulate pollutants such as PM₁₀ and PM_2.5 was the more significant contributor towards AQI during the two seasons. The AQI observed that industrial sites were under the “severe air pollution” category in the winter season. Hierarchical agglomerative cluster analysis (HACA) explains the pollutants dispersion and spatial variations in the Paradip city.