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Singh M, Singh BB, Singh R, Upendra B, Kaur R, Gill SS, Biswas MS. Quantifying COVID-19 enforced global changes in atmospheric pollutants using cloud computing based remote sensing. REMOTE SENSING APPLICATIONS : SOCIETY AND ENVIRONMENT 2021; 22:100489. [PMID: 36567694 PMCID: PMC9765305 DOI: 10.1016/j.rsase.2021.100489] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/26/2020] [Revised: 02/11/2021] [Accepted: 03/01/2021] [Indexed: 12/27/2022]
Abstract
Global lockdowns in response to the COVID-19 pandemic have led to changes in the anthropogenic activities resulting in perceivable air quality improvements. Although several recent studies have analyzed these changes over different regions of the globe, these analyses have been constrained due to the usage of station based data which is mostly limited up to the metropolitan cities. Also the quantifiable changes have been reported only for the developed and developing regions leaving the poor economies (e.g. Africa) due to the shortage of in-situ data. Using a comprehensive set of high spatiotemporal resolution satellites and merged products of air pollutants, we analyze the air quality across the globe and quantify the improvement resulting from the suppressed anthropogenic activity during the lockdowns. In particular, we focus on megacities, capitals and cities with high standards of living to make the quantitative assessment. Our results offer valuable insights into the spatial distribution of changes in the air pollutants due to COVID-19 enforced lockdowns. Statistically significant reductions are observed over megacities with mean reduction by 19.74%, 7.38% and 49.9% in nitrogen dioxide (NO2), aerosol optical depth (AOD) and PM2.5 concentrations. Google Earth Engine empowered cloud computing based remote sensing is used and the results provide a testbed for climate sensitivity experiments and validation of chemistry-climate models. Additionally, Google Earth Engine based apps have been developed to visualize the changes in a real-time fashion.
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Affiliation(s)
- Manmeet Singh
- Centre for Climate Change Research, Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology, Ministry of Earth Sciences, Government of India, Pune, India,IDP in Climate Studies, Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay, India
| | - Bhupendra Bahadur Singh
- Centre for Climate Change Research, Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology, Ministry of Earth Sciences, Government of India, Pune, India,Department of Geophysics, Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi, India
| | - Raunaq Singh
- School of Sciences, Indira Gandhi National Open University, Delhi, India
| | - Badimela Upendra
- National Centre for Earth Science Studies, Ministry of Earth Sciences, Government of India, Thiruvananthapuram, India
| | - Rupinder Kaur
- Department of Chemistry, Guru Nanak Dev University, Amritsar, India
| | - Sukhpal Singh Gill
- School of Electronic Engineering and Computer Science, Queen Mary University of London, London, United Kingdom
| | - Mriganka Sekhar Biswas
- Centre for Climate Change Research, Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology, Ministry of Earth Sciences, Government of India, Pune, India,Department of Atmospheric and Space Sciences, Savitribai Phule Pune University, Pune, India,Corresponding author. Centre for Climate Change Research, Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology, Pashan, Pune, 411008, India
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Nyeki S, Halios CH, Baum W, Eleftheriadis K, Flentje H, Gröbner J, Vuilleumier L, Wehrli C. Ground-based aerosol optical depth trends at three high-altitude sites in Switzerland and southern Germany from 1995 to 2010. ACTA ACUST UNITED AC 2012. [DOI: 10.1029/2012jd017493] [Citation(s) in RCA: 28] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/09/2022]
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