(MENAFN- Live Mint) Delhi's air quality improved slightly early Wednesday (October 29) but remained in the "poor" category a day after the government carried out two cloud seeding trials in the city.

The overall Air Quality Index (AQI) in the NCR on Wednesday dropped to 273 from 294 a day earlier. As per SAFAR, the "current AQI" around 10 am was recorded at 273 (poor), the "forecast AQI" was projected at 309 (very poor).

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According to the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB), Delhi recorded an AQI of 294 at 4 pm on Tuesday (October 28), a marginal drop from Monday's (October 27) reading of 301, which fell under the "very poor" category.

Despite the overall improvement, 11 out of Delhi's 38 monitoring stations continued to record AQI in "very poor" range with readings above 300, data from the CPCB's Sameer app showed.

Delhi Air Quality Index (AQI)

According to the CPCB, an AQI between zero and 50 is considered "good", 51 to 100 "satisfactory", 101 to 200 "moderate", 201 to 300 "poor", 301 to 400 "very poor" and 401 to 500 "severe".

Meanwhile, the minimum temperature in Delhi settled at 18.2 degrees Celsius, 2.1 notches above normal, the India Meteorological Department (IMD) said.

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The maximum temperature is likely to settle around 28 degrees Celsius, the IMD has it forecast shallow fog in the city on Wednesday.

The IMD added that the relative humidity was 89 per cent at 8.30 am.

Cloud seeding trials in Delhi

After a gap of 53 years, Delhi conducted cloud seeding trials on Tuesday to induce artificial rain in the national capital amid surging pollution levels.

However, the weather department did not record any traces of rainfall in the city.

The Delhi government, in collaboration with IIT-Kanpur, conducted the trials in parts of Delhi, including Burari, north Karol Bagh, Mayur Vihar, and Badli, with more such exercises planned over the next few days, Environment Minister Manjinder Singh Sirsa said.

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Later, in the evening, the government said in a report that two precipitation events were recorded - Noida at 4 pm (0.1mm of rain) and Greater Noida at 4 pm (0.2 mm).

According to officials, during the trial, silver iodide and sodium chloride compounds were released from an aircraft to induce artificial rain. They said the expected timeline for rainfall ranges from 15 minutes to 24 hours, depending on weather conditions, and there can be rain later in the night.

The first trial was completed by 2 pm on Tuesday and for the second trial, the flight took off from Meerut around 4 pm and completed the trial in an hour.

The impact

The report stated that the cloud seeding trials helped in reduction of particulate matter at locations where the exercise was carried out even as conditions were not ideal for it.

"Before cloud seeding, the PM 2.5 level was 221, 230, and 229 in Mayur Vihar, Karol Bagh, and Burari, respectively, which reduced to 207, 206, and 203, respectively, after the first seeding," the report stated.

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"Similarly, PM 10 level was 207, 206, 209, which got reduced to 177, 163, 177 at Mayur Vihar, Karol Bagh, and Burari, respectively," it added.

No ideal condition for cloud seeding

The government said that the moisture content predicted by the India Meteorological Department (IMD) and other agencies remained low at 10-15 per cent, which is not an ideal condition for cloud seeding.

Soon after the first trial, Sirsa said IIT-Kanpur has opined that rain could happen within 15 minutes to four hours after the exercise.

"However, the rainfall won't be heavy since the humidity levels were only at 15 to 20 per cent," the minister said.

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However, the IMD data showed there was no rainfall recorded in Delhi till late evening.

Environmentalists termed the cloud-seeding trial a short-term measure, saying it may temporarily reduce pollution but fails to address the root causes of the capital's deteriorating air quality.

9-10 more such cloud seeding trials planned

Sirsa said nine to 10 such trials are planned over the next few days. He said that since the IMD has informed that the wind direction is towards north, areas falling under that region are being targeted.

"This is a huge step taken by the government to mitigate pollution. If trials are successful, we will prepare a long-term plan till February. We hope that if this is successful, it will be a first such scientific step in India to reduce pollution," he added.

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