India, Oct. 2 -- An independent study by the Council on Energy, Environment and Water (CEEW) has found that Delhi's Air Quality Early Warning System (AQEWS) accurately forecasted over 80 percent of the city's 'very poor and above' air pollution days during the winter months of 2023-24 and 2024-25. The system predicted 83 out of 92 high pollution episodes (AQI >300) in 2023-24 and 54 out of 58 such episodes in 2024-25.

The study, titled 'How Well Can Delhi Predict Air Quality? Insights for India's Decision Support Systems,' highlighted improvements in forecasting the most severe pollution days (AQI >400) with the system predicting 5 out of 14 episodes in 2024-25, compared to only 1 out of 15 in 2023-24.

"Accurate forecasts empower policy...