As Dhaka has started experiencing rains with the arrival of monsoon, the air quality in the capital improved significantly as it ranked the 15th worst polluted city in the world in the Air Quality Index (AQI) on Sunday morning.

The air in Dhaka was categorised as ‘moderate’ in the morning as the capital city had an AQI score of 76 at 09:50am.

When the AQI remains in between 51 and 100, the air quality is acceptable. However, there may be a risk for some people, particularly those who are unusually sensitive to air pollution.

United Arab Emirates’ Dubai, USA’s New York City and South Africa’s Johannesburg occupied the first three spots in the list of cities with the worst air quality with AQI scores of 152, 142 and 1132 respectively.

The AQI, an index for reporting daily air quality, informs people how clean or polluted the air of a certain city is, and what associated health effects might be a concern for them.

In Bangladesh, the AQI is based on five criteria pollutants – Particulate Matter (PM10 and PM2.5), NO2, CO, SO2, and Ozone (O3).

Bangladesh has a subtropical monsoon climate characterized by wide seasonal variations in rainfall, high temperatures and humidity.

Generally, Dhaka’s air starts getting fresh when rain starts from mid-June. The air remains mostly acceptable during monsoon from June to October.