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With Winter coming, air pollution in India is going to once again hit crisis levels soon. At the individual level we can wear masks and use air purifiers in our homes, but more broadly, cities and municipalities have also been installing outdoor air purifiers over several years now — but do these actually work? Have smog towers and outdoor air purifiers made an impact on the air quality in India? Despite the outdoor air purifiers and smog towers, the PM2.5 concentration in India air is currently 5.2 times above the WHO annual air quality guideline. The air quality in India is simply not getting better even after all the money and efforts spent to curb the air pollution problem in the country. We talked to a number of experts to try and understand why this is, and whether there are any better solutions possible.

Cities like Mumbai have been deploying Wind Augmentation Purifying Unit (WAYU) since 2015, in an effort to cut down the air pollution problem in India. Major Indian cities like Delhi and Bengaluru have also resorted to installing outdoor purifiers and smog towers along the city roads in an effort to curb pollution problems. Delhi got a new smog tower in Connaught Place in August this year.

Yet, India stood third in a list of top ten countries that had the worst air quality in 2020, coming only behind Bangladesh and Pakistan. According to research by the Council on Energy, Environment, and Water (CEEW) — a Delhi-based policy research institute — Delhi’s air quality in winter 2020 was worse than winter 2019 despite the lockdown. The study also found out that Delhi residents were exposed to air that does not meet the National Ambient Air Quality Standards (60 µg/m3) for more than half of 2020 despite low economic activity levels for close to eight months (March to November) due to the pandemic-induced lockdown.

According to Tanushree Ganguly, an air quality researcher from CEEW, the air pollution that India is facing is an urban infrastructure problem. “If there is an unpaved road, it is bound to have more dust,” Ganguly said. “Vehicular pollution also results in air pollution. In winters, a significant amount of pollution also comes from biomass that people burn for their heating requirements.”

Are outdoor air purifiers a solution to air pollution problem?

WAYU devices, jointly developed by National Environmental Engineering Research Institute (NEERI), the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), and Indian Institute of Technology-Bombay (IIT-B) have been around since 2015. The Central Pollution Control Board had installed WAYU units across some major locations in Delhi in 2018.

“Its creators claim it can reduce pollution at busy traffic junctions by 40-60 percent,” Dr. Prashant Gargava, member secretary of the Central Pollution Control Board, had said at the time of installation.

“The air pollution levels change depending on the time it was measured,” Ganguly said. “So when was it measured, in what area is the air quality being improved — is it just within ten metres of the air purifiers or within 500 metres of the air purifier — all these factors need to be considered to show that it is really making any impact. I have not come across any publicly available research or database which clearly says that WAYU devices have actually impacted air quality in the 500 metre radius.”

“There is a constant dynamism in the system and you are not just trying to address sources of pollution which are present at the moment; you are also trying to address the sources which are outside the city,” she added. “I’m not sure how these filters are able to cater to these varying dynamics outdoors. I think the idea is to have credible evidence on their impact before we go ahead and have them across the city.”

Vivel Chattopadhyay, Senior Programme Manager of the Clean Air Programme at the Centre for Science and Environment (CSE), a research and advocacy organisation based in Delhi said that apart from the installation costs, outdoor air purifiers come with several added costs.

This includes the cost of maintenance, cost of the filters which will have to be changed periodically, components like sensors which require periodic calibration, operational costs, manpower, the cost of the land which is being occupied by the air pollutants and more. These are not easy to solve problems, but the companies making these solutions are also aware of them and working on solutions.

“We have nano-filters in our outdoor air purifiers which can be reused up to four times, thus saving a lot of maintenance costs, “ said Rajeev Krishna, founder of ATechTron, a product development company based in Bengaluru. ATechTron have installed their outdoor air purifiers in locations including Marathahalli junction, Whitefield, and PR Nagar in Bengaluru.

How can we really solve the air pollution problem?

CEEW had suggested in their research that Delhi needs a dedicated air quality forecasting cell to facilitate the rollout of preventive measures. “If we have the forecast for the next 72 hours, we can clearly see the contribution ratio to the pollution — for example, urban dust at night is the highest,” said Ganguly. “Perhaps, this is due to the trucks at night. The government can take measures to cut out the activities which they really can through forecasting — it’s very difficult to execute these activities due to the significant economic repercussions.”

“Wherever in the world where pollution reduction has happened in a big manner, the solution has been cleaner fuel and technology working to controlling pollution from the sources, better assessment and study of where the pollution is coming from,” said Chattopadhyay.

Chattopadhyay added that the amount of money that is being spent on outdoor air purifiers can be used to cut down the emission from the sources. “The same amount of money can be spent to buy electric buses, you can have waste collection and segregation centres. That will eliminate the source of the problems. That will give us better long term gains. Outdoor air purifiers are really futile efforts. Government is letting the pollution be released from the source. The emissions are taking place from industry, from vehicles, and multiple sources. Cutting down from the source will have a wider implication in terms of exposure too,” added Chattopadhyay.

Ganguly also suggested that the transit infrastructure, including waste collection, waste transport, and waste management infrastructure need to be improved. “In winters, a significant amount of pollution also comes from biomass that people burn for their heating requirements,” she noted. “The Delhi shelters are perhaps not able to cater to all the homeless people in Delhi. So I think it is also important how the government is planning on upgrading these existing shelters, so that at least their utilisation is better. At night, if these shelters can accommodate the homeless population, then their reliance on garbage or dry leaves for their heating requirements could be reduced.”

Chattopadhyay also added that tighter emission control norms must be in place. “Tighter emission control norms for power plants will lead to a reduction (in air pollution). The government has to put in the money into the right sources — cutting emissions from the sources and maintaining regulations. Smog towers are not a right policy decision. Such methods give a signal to the polluters that it is okay to pollute,” he said.

A bandage solution

Krishna, of ATechTron, disagreed with the researchers’ suggestions that forecasting and air quality monitoring is a better solution. He suggested that strategically placing outdoor air purifiers within a distance of two-three kilometres to each other throughout the city will surely lead to a reduction in air pollution.

Angad Daryani, founder of Praan, a deep tech startup which makes outdoor air purifiers also said that what the NCR government is doing with smog-free towers is non-scientific. When asked if outdoor air purifiers can really contribute to solving the pollution problem in India, he said that the outdoor air purifiers from Praan serve as a bandage solution to the pollution problem while we transition to cleaner energy.

I asked Ganguly if this was the case, but she remained unconvinced. “Let’s not call it a solution before we know for sure it is one,” she said. “Once the entire range of measures has been taken and if we still don’t see any significant impact, then perhaps this could be looked at as a solution. But this cannot precede all the other solutions. As a researcher, that is what I have an issue with.”


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Crystalline Ice Discovered in Space: New Study Reveals Hidden Order in Cosmic Ice

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Crystalline Ice Discovered in Space: New Study Reveals Hidden Order in Cosmic Ice

Water ice coats many outer solar system bodies – from Jupiter’s icy moon Ganymede (above) to interstellar dust. On Earth, ice freezes into a neat crystal lattice, but in the deep cold of space it was assumed to form a completely amorphous (glassy) solid. A new study by University College London and Cambridge scientists challenges this picture. Their computer simulations and X-ray tests on cosmic “low-density” ice suggest it actually contains tiny crystalline grains. In some models roughly 20–25% of the ice was in crystal form, overturning the long-held view that space ice is entirely structureless.

Simulations reveal hidden nanocrystals

According to the paper, computer simulations of space ice showed it contains nanocrystals. In one approach, researchers cooled virtual water to –120 °C at different rates to form model “ice cubes.” Depending on the cooling speed, the simulated ice ranged from fully amorphous to partly ordered. Structures with roughly 16–19% of the molecules in tiny crystal clusters best matched published X-ray data for low-density ice. In another simulation, thousands of nanometer-sized ice grains were packed together and then the remaining water molecules were randomized. This produced ice about 25% crystalline, yet still reproduced the known diffraction pattern.

In laboratory experiments the team also made actual low-density amorphous ice by vapor deposition and gentle compression. When these samples were slowly warmed to crystallize, the resulting ice showed a “memory” of its formation method.

Implications for planets and origins of life

The findings give “a good idea of what the most common form of ice in the Universe looks like at an atomic level,” which is important for models of planet and galaxy formation. They also bear on theories of life’s origins. Partly crystalline ice has less internal space to trap organic molecules, potentially making it a less efficient vehicle for amino acids or other prebiotic compounds. However, Dr. Davies notes that pockets of fully amorphous ice still exist, so cosmic dust grains and cometary ices could continue to harbor organic ingredients in those disordered regions.

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Axiom Space’s Ax-4 Crew Returns from ISS Aboard SpaceX Dragon Grace After Record Research Mission

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Axiom Space’s Ax-4 Crew Returns from ISS Aboard SpaceX Dragon Grace After Record Research Mission

The latest mission of Axiom Space with the four astronauts has found their stay aboard the International Space Station (ISS). SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule called Grace, unboarded from the ISS on July 14, 2025, carrying the quartet on the last leg of Ax-4 mission at 4:45 p.m. IST. It safely manoeuvred away from the orbit’s lab, which was the crew’s home for more than 2.5 weeks. Further, it performed the deorbit burn series and is on the path to come back to Earth at around 3:00 p.m. IST.

Ax-4 Mission Wraps Up After Extended ISS Stay and Record-Setting Research

As per NASA, The former NASA astronaut Peggy Whitson is the commander, and the other crew members are pilot Shubhanshu Shukla and mission specialist Sławosz Uznański-Wiśniewski and Tibor Kapu. it is the first spaceflight for all three. However, its fifth mission for Whitson to orbit is recorded as 695 cumulative days.

The mission is an extension of the Houston-based company’s previous crewed flights, and is for research and science investigations which aim for the understanding of microgravity milieu. So far, Ax-4 has conducted 60 experiments and tech demos with contributions from 31 countries, as well as a number of public outreach events, and has broken the record as it continues to refine the orbital operations.

SpaceX Dragon Capsule Grace Returns via Pacific Splashdown

The mission was launched on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket on June 26, 2025, from NASA’s Kennedy Space Centre, in Florida, and the crew was scheduled to stay aboard the space station for almost two weeks. This mission lasted four days longer than predicted. Departure started this morning, and now the crew and Dragon are on a 22.5-hour path on course for splashing down in the Pacific Ocean till the end of the day.

This will be the second West Coast crew recovery of SpaceX, while the first was of the Crew-9 ISS mission during March. SpaceX completely shifted to the Pacific Ocean, rather than the Gulf or the Atlantic, after the events of debris from Dragon’s trunk and crashing back to Earth. This new reentry minimises the chance of debris, said the representatives of SpaceX.

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NASA Deploys High-Tech Aircraft to Support Texas Flood Relief and Recovery Efforts

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NASA Deploys High-Tech Aircraft to Support Texas Flood Relief and Recovery Efforts

NASA deployed two aircrafts to help state and local authorities in the continuing recovery operations, in response to the flood near Kerrville, Texas. The aircrafts are from NASA’s Disasters Response Coordination System, and is activated to support the emergency response for flood and is closely working with the Texas Division of Emergency Management, the humanitarian groups Save the Children and GiveDirectly, and the Federal Emergency Management Agency. Persistent cloud-cover over there has made it quite difficult to capture the clear satellite images.

NASA Deploys Aircraft with Advanced Sensors for Texas Flood Response

As reported by NASA, if this can be done, the NASA’s Airborne Science Program can concur a series of flights to fetch observations of te impacted areas. NASA is sharing this data with emergency response teams to inform the search and rescue efforts and help in resource allocation and decision making. WB-57 aircraft departed from Ellington Field on July 8, 2025 for conducting aerial surveys. The aircraft is loaded with the DyNAMITE which is known as Day/Night Airborne Motion Imager for Terrestrial Environments sensor.

Real-Time Data and Imagery Aid Emergency Teams and Flood Recovery Efforts

The DyNAMITE views the Guadalupe River and many miles of the surrounding area, and provides high-resolution imagery which is important to evaluate the damage and support coordination of the foundation-based recovery efforts. This system enables the real-time data collection and analysis, which enhances the situational awareness and enhancing emergency response times.

Further, the agency’s Uninhabited Aerial Vehicle Syntehtic Aperture Radar (UAVSAR) aboard the Gulfstream III. UAVSAR is managed by Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California and is planning to collect the observations over the Guadalupe, San Gabriel, and Colorado river basins on three weekdays, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday. It can penetrate the vegetation to see water that sensors are unable to detect. The goal of the team is to characterise the flood extent of flood and help the understanding of the damage amount within communities.

Further, the Disasters are being coordinated with FEMA, the local responders and the Texas Division of Emergency Management for ensuring the data is quickly delivered to the decision making people on the ground. The data is being shared on the NASA Disasters Mapping Portal as soon as it is available.

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