New Delhi, Oct 23 (IANS): The level of PM 2.5 and 10 pollutants in the national capital's air dipped to 61 and 161, respectively, placing Delhi's pollution level in the "moderate" category on Friday.

As per the System of Air Quality and Weather Forecasting And Research (SAFAR), the level of PM2.5 stood at 82 and that of PM 10 at 202, on Friday morning, both under "moderate" category.

Delhi's Air Quality Index (AQI) was recorded at 162, which is in the "moderate" category.

As per SAFAR methodology, effective fire counts are 894 and its share is 4 per cent in Delhi's PM2.5 as transport level winds are not favourable for intrusion. In presence of local dry weather and westerly wind, local dust emission will lead to high PM10.

Additional dust transport from Rajasthan desert areas due to higher winds and dry conditions are contributing to PM10 enhancement. Impact of fire emission is almost negligible due to faster dispersion and unfavorable wind direction. The overall AQI is forecasted to remain in moderate for next two days, Safar data at 10.30 p.m. read.

Only this morning, 1,234 fire counts were reported, sharing 15 per cent in Delhi's PM2.5.

As per Safar, external dust intrusion, moderate mixing layer height, local wind speed, ventilation factor and stubble burning are the most influencing factors deteriorating AQI.

Indian Agricultural Research Institute (IARI) had said that the number of stubble-burning events has decreased from 969 on October 20 to 765 on October 21 in the six study states.

A total of 6,502 burning events were detected in Delhi's neigbouring states between September 15 and October 21, which were distributed as 4,327, 1,368, 631, zero, 40 and 136 in Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Delhi, Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh respectively.