The next time you plan to go out, you can check the air pollution level of your destination in Capital. In a first, city dwellers can check real time air quality in their location just by using a mobile application. launched on Tuesday, the app, “SAFAR-Air”, will provide users with forecasts and associated health advisories.
At a time when Delhi has been listed as one of the most polluted cities in the world, “SAFAR-Air” — the only such mobile application service in the country — would monitor air quality in five regions of the national Capital - west, east, north, south and central. The app will provide current air quality and forecast for the next day through colour-codes. Under this system, green would mean “good” air quality, yellow “moderately polluted”, orange “poor”, “red” “very poor” and “maroon” for “critical” levels of air pollution.
App user can also share current air quality situation in her/his location on Twitter, Facebook or through emails. “This application is towards creating public awareness so that self precaution can be taken. If we are knowledgeable about pollution condition in real time, it will immensely benefit all of us. With this app, people can now make outdoor plan based on the air quality,” said Gufran Beig, project director of System for Air quality Forecasting and Research (SAFAR). He added that it will help policy makers in Delhi adopt some practical measures from time to time towards clean air.
The system, which comes under the Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology (IITM) was launched by the Ministry of Earth Sciences on Tuesday. The forecasting model is run on the supercomputer in IITM called “Aditya”. Data of at least two monitoring stations is used for providing information for each region while it has installed a total of 10 stations in Delhi which would monitor air quality based on eight parameters.
“When the air quality is poor, a recommendation will pop up on the user’s phone screen suggesting that people with heart or lung disease, older adults and children should reduce prolonged or heavy exertion and avoid going outdoors during that time. That is how it will also issue health advisories,” explained Beig.