Increasing trend of carbon monoxide along the west coast region in India

Carbon Monoxide is one of the prominent pollutant species mainly produced out of fossil fuel burning, motor vehicles and other industrial activities. Being a toxic trace gas, its impact to human health is a serious concern all over the globe. The rapid increase in Carbon Monoxide enhances the production of surface ozone which adds a pace to the global warming. This work is an attempt to retrieve the seasonal variation of the vertical profile of Carbon Monoxide column at the prominent hotspots along the coastal belt of the Arabian Sea using MOPITT version 3 of level 2 data. A strong seasonal dependence of Carbon Monoxide abundance is observed and it is validated with global 3Dimensional chemical transport model for atmospheric composition. The increasing trend in the Carbon Monoxide column abundance is estimated at these sites and it is found that a sharp rise in the concentration of Carbon Monoxide has been observed at this region lying along the coastal region of the Arabian Sea where industrial activities are fairly weak compared to other regions in India.