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Matandirotya NR, Dangare T, Matandirotya E, Mahed G. Characterisation of ambient air quality over two urban sites on the South African Highveld. SCIENTIFIC AFRICAN 2022. [DOI: 10.1016/j.sciaf.2022.e01530] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/29/2022] Open
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2
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Haque MN, Sharif MS, Rudra RR, Mahi MM, Uddin MJ, Ellah RG. Analyzing the spatio-temporal directions of air pollutants for the initial wave of Covid-19 epidemic over Bangladesh: Application of satellite imageries and Google Earth Engine. REMOTE SENSING APPLICATIONS 2022; 28:100862. [PMID: 36349349 PMCID: PMC9633110 DOI: 10.1016/j.rsase.2022.100862] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/11/2022] [Revised: 10/16/2022] [Accepted: 10/26/2022] [Indexed: 11/06/2022]
Abstract
One of the most critical issues for city viability and global health is air quality. The shutdown interval for the COVID-19 outbreaks has turned into an ecological experiment, allowing researchers to explore the influence of human/industrial operations on air quality. In this study, we have observed and examined the spatial pattern of air pollutants, specifically CO, NO2, SO2, O3 as well as AOD Over Bangladesh. For that reason, the timeline was chosen from March 2019 to October 2020 (before and during the first surge of COVID-19). The full analysis has been performed in Google Earth Engine (GEE). The findings showed that, CO, SO2, and AOD levels dropped significantly, but SO2 dropped slowly and O3 levels were similar, with marginally greater quantities in some areas during the lockdown than in 2019. During the shutdown, the association involving airborne pollutants and weather parameters (temperature and rainfall) revealed that rainfall and temperature were directly associated with air pollutants. COVID-19 mortality had a high positive connection with NO2 (R2 = 0.145; r = 0.38) and AOD (R2 = 0.17; r = 0.412). It is also found that various air impurities concentration has a strong relationship with Covid death. It would help the policymakers and officials to gain a better understanding of the sources of atmospheric emissions to develop a substantial proof of short- and long-term mitigation ways to enhance air quality and reduce the associated disease and disability burden.
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Affiliation(s)
- Md. Nazmul Haque
- School of Humanities and Social Sciences, Hiroshima University, Hiroshima, Japan,Department of Urban and Regional Planning, Khulna University Engineering & Technology, Khulna, 9203, Bangladesh,Corresponding author. School of Humanities and Social Sciences, Hiroshima University, Hiroshima, Japan Department of Urban and Regional Planning, Khulna University of Engineering and Technology, Room # 208, URP Building, KUET, Khulna, 9203, Bangladesh
| | - Md. Shahriar Sharif
- Department of Urban and Regional Planning, Khulna University Engineering & Technology, Khulna, 9203, Bangladesh
| | - Rhyme Rubayet Rudra
- Department of Urban and Regional Planning, Khulna University Engineering & Technology, Khulna, 9203, Bangladesh
| | - Mahdi Mansur Mahi
- Department of Urban and Regional Planning, Khulna University Engineering & Technology, Khulna, 9203, Bangladesh
| | - Md. Jahir Uddin
- Department of Civil Engineering, Khulna University of Engineering & Technology, Khulna, 9203, Bangladesh
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3
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Wong YJ, Shiu HY, Chang JHH, Ooi MCG, Li HH, Homma R, Shimizu Y, Chiueh PT, Maneechot L, Nik Sulaiman NM. Spatiotemporal impact of COVID-19 on Taiwan air quality in the absence of a lockdown: Influence of urban public transportation use and meteorological conditions. JOURNAL OF CLEANER PRODUCTION 2022; 365:132893. [PMID: 35781986 PMCID: PMC9234473 DOI: 10.1016/j.jclepro.2022.132893] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/19/2021] [Revised: 06/01/2022] [Accepted: 06/24/2022] [Indexed: 05/19/2023]
Abstract
The unprecedented outbreak of COVID-19 significantly improved the atmospheric environment for lockdown-imposed regions; however, scant evidence exists on its impacts on regions without lockdown. A novel research framework is proposed to evaluate the long-term monthly spatiotemporal impact of COVID-19 on Taiwan air quality through different statistical analyses, including geostatistical analysis, change detection analysis and identification of nonattainment pollutant occurrence between the average mean air pollutant concentrations from 2018-2019 and 2020, considering both meteorological and public transportation impacts. Contrary to lockdown-imposed regions, insignificant or worsened air quality conditions were observed at the beginning of COVID-19, but a delayed improvement occurred after April in Taiwan. The annual mean concentrations of PM10, PM2.5, SO2, NO2, CO and O3 in 2020 were reduced by 24%, 18%, 15%, 9.6%, 7.4% and 1.3%, respectively (relative to 2018-2019), and the overall occurrence frequency of nonattainment air pollutants declined by over 30%. Backward stepwise regression models for each air pollutant were successfully constructed utilizing 12 meteorological parameters (R2 > 0.8 except for SO2) to simulate the meteorological normalized business-as-usual concentration. The hybrid single-particle Lagrangian integrated trajectory (HYSPLIT) model simulated the fate of air pollutants (e.g., local emissions or transboundary pollution) for anomalous months. The changes in different public transportation usage volumes (e.g., roadway, railway, air, and waterway) moderately reduced air pollution, particularly CO and NO2. Reduced public transportation use had a more significant impact than meteorology on air quality improvement in Taiwan, highlighting the importance of proper public transportation management for air pollution control and paving a new path for sustainable air quality management even in the absence of a lockdown.
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Affiliation(s)
- Yong Jie Wong
- Research Center for Environmental Quality Management, Graduate School of Engineering, Kyoto University, 520-0811, Japan
| | - Huan-Yu Shiu
- Graduate Institute of Environmental Engineering, National Taiwan University, 10617, Taiwan
| | - Jackson Hian-Hui Chang
- Department of Atmospheric Sciences, National Central University, 32001, Taiwan
- Preparatory Center for Science and Technology (PPST), Universiti Malaysia Sabah, 88400, Malaysia
| | - Maggie Chel Gee Ooi
- Institute of Climate Change, National University of Malaysia (UKM), Bangi, 43600, Malaysia
| | - Hsueh-Hsun Li
- Graduate Institute of Environmental Engineering, National Taiwan University, 10617, Taiwan
| | - Ryosuke Homma
- Research Center for Environmental Quality Management, Graduate School of Engineering, Kyoto University, 520-0811, Japan
| | - Yoshihisa Shimizu
- Research Center for Environmental Quality Management, Graduate School of Engineering, Kyoto University, 520-0811, Japan
| | - Pei-Te Chiueh
- Graduate Institute of Environmental Engineering, National Taiwan University, 10617, Taiwan
| | - Luksanaree Maneechot
- Environmental Engineering and Disaster Management Program, School of Interdisciplinary Studies, Mahidol University Kanchanaburi Campus (MUKA), Kanchanaburi, 71150, Thailand
| | - Nik Meriam Nik Sulaiman
- Department of Chemical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, University of Malaya, 50603, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
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Zhang J, Lim YH, Andersen ZJ, Napolitano G, Taghavi Shahri SM, So R, Plucker M, Danesh-Yazdi M, Cole-Hunter T, Therming Jørgensen J, Liu S, Bergmann M, Jayant Mehta A, H. Mortensen L, Requia W, Lange T, Loft S, Kuenzli N, Schwartz J, Amini H. Stringency of COVID-19 Containment Response Policies and Air Quality Changes: A Global Analysis across 1851 Cities. ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY 2022; 56:12086-12096. [PMID: 35968717 PMCID: PMC9454244 DOI: 10.1021/acs.est.2c04303] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/16/2022] [Revised: 08/03/2022] [Accepted: 08/04/2022] [Indexed: 06/15/2023]
Abstract
The COVID-19 containment response policies (CRPs) had a major impact on air quality (AQ). These CRPs have been time-varying and location-specific. So far, despite having numerous studies on the effect of COVID-19 lockdown on AQ, a knowledge gap remains on the association between stringency of CRPs and AQ changes across the world, regions, nations, and cities. Here, we show that globally across 1851 cities (each more than 300 000 people) in 149 countries, after controlling for the impacts of relevant covariates (e.g., meteorology), Sentinel-5P satellite-observed nitrogen dioxide (NO2) levels decreased by 4.9% (95% CI: 2.2, 7.6%) during lockdowns following stringent CRPs compared to pre-CRPs. The NO2 levels did not change significantly during moderate CRPs and even increased during mild CRPs by 2.3% (95% CI: 0.7, 4.0%), which was 6.8% (95% CI: 2.0, 12.0%) across Europe and Central Asia, possibly due to population avoidance of public transportation in favor of private transportation. Among 1768 cities implementing stringent CRPs, we observed the most NO2 reduction in more populated and polluted cities. Our results demonstrate that AQ improved when and where stringent COVID-19 CRPs were implemented, changed less under moderate CRPs, and even deteriorated under mild CRPs. These changes were location-, region-, and CRP-specific.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jiawei Zhang
- Department
of Public Health, University of Copenhagen, 1014 Copenhagen, Denmark
| | - Youn-Hee Lim
- Department
of Public Health, University of Copenhagen, 1014 Copenhagen, Denmark
| | | | - George Napolitano
- Department
of Public Health, University of Copenhagen, 1014 Copenhagen, Denmark
| | | | - Rina So
- Department
of Public Health, University of Copenhagen, 1014 Copenhagen, Denmark
| | - Maude Plucker
- Department
of Public Health, University of Copenhagen, 1014 Copenhagen, Denmark
| | - Mahdieh Danesh-Yazdi
- Department
of Environmental Health, Harvard TH Chan
School of Public Health, Boston, Massachusetts 02115, United States
- Program
in Public Health, Department of Family, Population & Preventive
Medicine, Stony Brook University School
of Medicine, Stony Brook, New York 11794-8434, United States
| | - Thomas Cole-Hunter
- Department
of Public Health, University of Copenhagen, 1014 Copenhagen, Denmark
| | | | - Shuo Liu
- Department
of Public Health, University of Copenhagen, 1014 Copenhagen, Denmark
| | - Marie Bergmann
- Department
of Public Health, University of Copenhagen, 1014 Copenhagen, Denmark
| | - Amar Jayant Mehta
- Department
of Public Health, University of Copenhagen, 1014 Copenhagen, Denmark
| | - Laust H. Mortensen
- Department
of Public Health, University of Copenhagen, 1014 Copenhagen, Denmark
- Methods
and Analysis, Statistics Denmark, 2100 Copenhagen, Denmark
| | - Weeberb Requia
- School
of Public Policy and Government, Fundação
Getúlio Vargas, Brasilia, Distrito Federal 72125590, Brazil
| | - Theis Lange
- Department
of Public Health, University of Copenhagen, 1014 Copenhagen, Denmark
| | - Steffen Loft
- Department
of Public Health, University of Copenhagen, 1014 Copenhagen, Denmark
| | - Nino Kuenzli
- Swiss Tropical
and Public Health Institute (Swiss TPH), Basel 4051, Switzerland
- University
of Basel, Basel 4001, Switzerland
| | - Joel Schwartz
- Department
of Environmental Health, Harvard TH Chan
School of Public Health, Boston, Massachusetts 02115, United States
| | - Heresh Amini
- Department
of Public Health, University of Copenhagen, 1014 Copenhagen, Denmark
- Department
of Environmental Health, Harvard TH Chan
School of Public Health, Boston, Massachusetts 02115, United States
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García-Dalmau M, Udina M, Bech J, Sola Y, Montolio J, Jaén C. Pollutant Concentration Changes During the COVID-19 Lockdown in Barcelona and Surrounding Regions: Modification of Diurnal Cycles and Limited Role of Meteorological Conditions. BOUNDARY-LAYER METEOROLOGY 2021; 183:273-294. [PMID: 34975160 PMCID: PMC8711231 DOI: 10.1007/s10546-021-00679-1] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/17/2021] [Accepted: 10/11/2021] [Indexed: 06/01/2023]
Abstract
One of the consequences of the COVID-19 lockdowns has been the modification of the air quality in many cities around the world. This study focuses on the variations in pollutant concentrations and how important meteorological conditions were for those variations in Barcelona and the surrounding area during the 2020 lockdown. Boundary-layer height, wind speed, and precipitation were compared between mid-March and April 2016-2019 (pre-lockdown) and the same period in 2020 (during lockdown). The results show the limited influence of meteorological factors on horizontal and vertical dispersion conditions. Compared with the pre-lockdown period, during lockdown the boundary-layer height slightly increased by between 5% and 9%, mean wind speed was very similar, and the fraction of days with rainfall increased only marginally, from 0.33 to 0.34, even though April 2020 was extremely wet in the study area. Variations in nitrogen dioxide ( NO 2 ), particulate matter with a diameter less than 10 μ m (PM10), and ozone ( O 3 ) concentrations over a 10-year period showed a 66% reduction in NO 2 , 37% reduction in PM10, and 27% increase in O 3 at a traffic station in Barcelona. The differences in the daily concentration cycle between weekends and weekdays were heavily smoothed for all pollutants considered. The afternoon NO 2 peak at the traffic station was suppressed compared with the average daily cycle. The analysis of ozone was extended to the regional scale, revealing lower concentrations at rural sites and higher ones in urban zones, especially in Barcelona and the surrounding area. The results presented not only complement previous air quality COVID-19 lockdown studies but also provide insights into the effects of road-traffic reduction.
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Affiliation(s)
- Miguel García-Dalmau
- Departament de Física Aplicada–Meteorologia, Universitat de Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain
| | - Mireia Udina
- Departament de Física Aplicada–Meteorologia, Universitat de Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain
| | - Joan Bech
- Departament de Física Aplicada–Meteorologia, Universitat de Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain
| | - Yolanda Sola
- Departament de Física Aplicada–Meteorologia, Universitat de Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain
| | - Joan Montolio
- Departament de Física Aplicada–Meteorologia, Universitat de Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain
- DT Catalonia, AEMET, Barcelona, Spain
| | - Clara Jaén
- Departament de Física Aplicada–Meteorologia, Universitat de Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain
- Institute of Environmental Assessment and Water Research (IDAEACSIC), Barcelona, Spain
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Ceballos-Santos S, González-Pardo J, Carslaw DC, Santurtún A, Santibáñez M, Fernández-Olmo I. Meteorological Normalisation Using Boosted Regression Trees to Estimate the Impact of COVID-19 Restrictions on Air Quality Levels. INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF ENVIRONMENTAL RESEARCH AND PUBLIC HEALTH 2021; 18:13347. [PMID: 34948956 PMCID: PMC8701894 DOI: 10.3390/ijerph182413347] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/11/2021] [Revised: 12/13/2021] [Accepted: 12/14/2021] [Indexed: 12/23/2022]
Abstract
The global COVID-19 pandemic that began in late December 2019 led to unprecedented lockdowns worldwide, providing a unique opportunity to investigate in detail the impacts of restricted anthropogenic emissions on air quality. A wide range of strategies and approaches exist to achieve this. In this paper, we use the "deweather" R package, based on Boosted Regression Tree (BRT) models, first to remove the influences of meteorology and emission trend patterns from NO, NO2, PM10 and O3 data series, and then to calculate the relative changes in air pollutant levels in 2020 with respect to the previous seven years (2013-2019). Data from a northern Spanish region, Cantabria, with all types of monitoring stations (traffic, urban background, industrial and rural) were used, dividing the calendar year into eight periods according to the intensity of government restrictions. The results showed mean reductions in the lockdown period above -50% for NOx, around -10% for PM10 and below -5% for O3. Small differences were found between the relative changes obtained from normalised data with respect to those from observations. These results highlight the importance of developing an integrated policy to reduce anthropogenic emissions and the need to move towards sustainable mobility to ensure safer air quality levels, as pre-existing concentrations in some cases exceed the safe threshold.
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Affiliation(s)
- Sandra Ceballos-Santos
- Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, University of Cantabria, 39005 Santander, Spain; (J.G.-P.); (I.F.-O.)
| | - Jaime González-Pardo
- Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, University of Cantabria, 39005 Santander, Spain; (J.G.-P.); (I.F.-O.)
| | - David C. Carslaw
- Wolfson Atmospheric Chemistry Laboratories, University of York, York YO10 5DD, UK;
- Ricardo Energy & Environment, Didcot OX11 0QR, UK
| | - Ana Santurtún
- Unit of Legal Medicine, Department of Physiology and Pharmacology, University of Cantabria, 39011 Santander, Spain;
| | - Miguel Santibáñez
- Global Health Research Group, Department of Nursing, University of Cantabria, 39008 Santander, Spain;
- Research Nursing Group, IDIVAL, Calle Cardenal Herrera Oria s/n, 39011 Santander, Spain
| | - Ignacio Fernández-Olmo
- Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, University of Cantabria, 39005 Santander, Spain; (J.G.-P.); (I.F.-O.)
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Ghasempour F, Sekertekin A, Kutoglu SH. Google Earth Engine based spatio-temporal analysis of air pollutants before and during the first wave COVID-19 outbreak over Turkey via remote sensing. JOURNAL OF CLEANER PRODUCTION 2021; 319:128599. [PMID: 35958184 PMCID: PMC9356598 DOI: 10.1016/j.jclepro.2021.128599] [Citation(s) in RCA: 10] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/19/2021] [Revised: 08/06/2021] [Accepted: 08/08/2021] [Indexed: 05/19/2023]
Abstract
Air pollution is one of the vital problems for the sustainability of cities and public health. The lockdown caused by the COVID-19 outbreak has become a natural laboratory, enabling to investigate the impact of human/industrial activities on the air pollution. In this study, we investigated the spatio-temporal density of TROPOMI-based nitrogen dioxide (NO2) and sulfur dioxide (SO2) products, and MODIS-derived Aerosol Optical Depth (AOD) from January 2019 to September 2020 (also covering the first wave of the COVID-19) over Turkey using Google Earth Engine (GEE). The results showed a significant decrease in NO2 and AOD, while SO2 unchanged and had slightly higher concentrations in some regions during the lockdown compared to 2019. The relationship between air pollutants and meteorological parameters during the lockdown showed that air temperature and pressure were highly correlated with air pollutants, unlike precipitation and wind speed. Moreover, Purchasing Managers' Index (PMI) data, indicator of economic/industrial activities, also provided poor correlation with air pollutants. TROPOMI-based NO2 and SO2 were compared with station-based pollutants for three sites (suburban, urban, and urban-traffic classes) in Istanbul, revealing 0.83, 0.70 and 0.65 correlation coefficients for NO2, respectively, while SO2 showed no significant correlation. Besides, AOD data were validated using two AERONET sites providing 0.86 and 0.82 correlation coefficients. Overall, the satellite-based data provided significant outcomes for the spatio-temporal evaluation of air quality, especially during the first wave of the COVID-19 lockdown.
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Affiliation(s)
- Fatemeh Ghasempour
- Department of Geomatics Engineering, Bulent Ecevit University, Zonguldak, 67100, Turkey
| | - Aliihsan Sekertekin
- Department of Geomatics Engineering, Cukurova University, 01950, Ceyhan, Adana, Turkey
| | - Senol Hakan Kutoglu
- Department of Geomatics Engineering, Bulent Ecevit University, Zonguldak, 67100, Turkey
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Abstract
The outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic has emerged as a serious public health threat and has had a tremendous impact on all spheres of the environment. The air quality across the world improved because of COVID-19 lockdowns. Since the outbreak of COVID-19, large numbers of studies have been carried out on the impact of lockdowns on air quality around the world, but no studies have been carried out on the systematic review on the impact of lockdowns on air quality. This study aims to systematically assess the bibliographic review on the impact of lockdowns on air quality around the globe. A total of 237 studies were identified after rigorous review, and 144 studies met the criteria for the review. The literature was surveyed from Scopus, Google Scholar, PubMed, Web of Science, and the Google search engine. The results reveal that (i) most of the studies were carried out on Asia (about 65%), followed by Europe (18%), North America (6%), South America (5%), and Africa (3%); (ii) in the case of countries, the highest number of studies was performed on India (29%), followed by China (23%), the U.S. (5%), the UK (4%), and Italy; (iii) more than 60% of the studies included NO2 for study, followed by PM2.5 (about 50%), PM10, SO2, and CO; (iv) most of the studies were published by Science of the Total Environment (29%), followed by Aerosol and Air Quality Research (23%), Air Quality, Atmosphere & Health (9%), and Environmental Pollution (5%); (v) the studies reveal that there were significant improvements in air quality during lockdowns in comparison with previous time periods. Thus, this diversified study conducted on the impact of lockdowns on air quality will surely assist in identifying any gaps, as it outlines the insights of the current scientific research.
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Miyazaki K, Bowman K, Sekiya T, Takigawa M, Neu JL, Sudo K, Osterman G, Eskes H. Global tropospheric ozone responses to reduced NO x emissions linked to the COVID-19 worldwide lockdowns. SCIENCE ADVANCES 2021; 7:eabf7460. [PMID: 34108210 PMCID: PMC8189586 DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.abf7460] [Citation(s) in RCA: 29] [Impact Index Per Article: 9.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/17/2020] [Accepted: 04/21/2021] [Indexed: 05/04/2023]
Abstract
Efforts to stem the transmission of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) led to rapid, global ancillary reductions in air pollutant emissions. Here, we quantify the impact on tropospheric ozone using a multiconstituent chemical data assimilation system. Anthropogenic NO x emissions dropped by at least 15% globally and 18 to 25% regionally in April and May 2020, which decreased free tropospheric ozone by up to 5 parts per billion, consistent with independent satellite observations. The global total tropospheric ozone burden declined by 6TgO3 (∼2%) in May and June 2020, largely due to emission reductions in Asia and the Americas that were amplified by regionally high ozone production efficiencies (up to 4 TgO3/TgN). Our results show that COVID-19 mitigation left a global atmospheric imprint that altered atmospheric oxidative capacity and climate radiative forcing, providing a test of the efficacy of NO x emissions controls for co-benefiting air quality and climate.
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Affiliation(s)
- Kazuyuki Miyazaki
- Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA, USA.
| | - Kevin Bowman
- Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA, USA
- Joint Institute for Regional Earth System Science and Engineering, University of California, Los Angeles, 4242 Young Hall, 607 Charles E. Young Drive East, Los Angeles, CA 90095-7228, USA
| | - Takashi Sekiya
- Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology, Yokohama 236-0001, Japan
| | - Masayuki Takigawa
- Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology, Yokohama 236-0001, Japan
| | - Jessica L Neu
- Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA, USA
| | - Kengo Sudo
- Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology, Yokohama 236-0001, Japan
- Graduate School of Environmental Studies, Nagoya University, Nagoya, Japan
| | - Greg Osterman
- Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA, USA
| | - Henk Eskes
- Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute, De Bilt, Netherlands
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Naqvi HR, Datta M, Mutreja G, Siddiqui MA, Naqvi DF, Naqvi AR. Improved air quality and associated mortalities in India under COVID-19 lockdown. ENVIRONMENTAL POLLUTION (BARKING, ESSEX : 1987) 2021; 268:115691. [PMID: 33139097 PMCID: PMC7590817 DOI: 10.1016/j.envpol.2020.115691] [Citation(s) in RCA: 24] [Impact Index Per Article: 8.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/08/2020] [Revised: 09/15/2020] [Accepted: 09/16/2020] [Indexed: 05/09/2023]
Abstract
India enforced stringent lockdown measures on March 24, 2020 to mitigate the spread of the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronovirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2). Here, we examined the impact of lockdown on the air quality index (AQI) [including ambient particulate matter (PM10 and PM2.5), nitrogen dioxide (NO2), sulfur dioxide (SO2), carbon monoxide (CO), ozone (O3), and ammonia (NH3)] and tropospheric NO2 and O3 densities through Sentinel-5 satellite data approximately 1 d post-lockdown and one month pre-lockdown and post-lockdown. Our findings revealed a marked reduction in the ambient AQI (estimated mean reduction of 17.75% and 20.70%, respectively), tropospheric NO2 density, and land surface temperature (LST) during post-lockdown compared with the pre-lockdown period or corresponding months in 2019, except for a few sites with substantial coal mining and active power plants. We observed a modest increase in the O3 density post-lockdown, thereby indicating improved tropospheric air quality. As a favorable outcome of the COVID-19 lockdown, road accident-related mortalities declined by 72-folds. Cities with poor air quality correlate with higher COVID-19 cases and deaths (r = 0.504 and r = 0.590 for NO2; r = 0.744 and r = 0.435 for AQI). Conversely, low mortality was reported in cities with better air quality. These results show a correlation between the COVID-19 vulnerable regions and AQI hotspots, thereby suggesting that air pollution may exacerbate clinical manifestations of the disease. However, a prolonged lockdown may nullify the beneficial environmental outcomes by adversely affecting socioeconomic and health aspects.
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Affiliation(s)
- Hasan Raja Naqvi
- Department of Geography, Faculty of Natural Sciences, Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi, India.
| | - Manali Datta
- Department of Biochemistry, Amity University, Jaipur, Rajasthan, India
| | - Guneet Mutreja
- Environmental Systems Research Institute, R & D Center, New Delhi, India
| | - Masood Ahsan Siddiqui
- Department of Geography, Faculty of Natural Sciences, Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi, India
| | | | - Afsar Raza Naqvi
- Department of Periodontics, College of Dentistry, University of Illinois at Chicago, Chicago, IL, USA
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Nitrogen Dioxide (NO2) Pollution Monitoring with Sentinel-5P Satellite Imagery over Europe during the Coronavirus Pandemic Outbreak. REMOTE SENSING 2020. [DOI: 10.3390/rs12213575] [Citation(s) in RCA: 35] [Impact Index Per Article: 8.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/31/2022]
Abstract
Nitrogen dioxide (NO2) is one of the main air quality pollutants of concern in many urban and industrial areas worldwide, and particularly in the European region, where in 2017 almost 20 countries exceeded the NO2 annual limit values imposed by the European Commission Directive 2008/50/EC (EEA, 2019). NO2 pollution monitoring and regulation is a necessary task to help decision makers to search for a sustainable solution for environmental quality and population health status improvement. In this study, we propose a comparative analysis of the tropospheric NO2 column spatial configuration over Europe between similar periods in 2019 and 2020, based on the ESA Copernicus Sentinel-5P products. The results highlight the NO2 pollution dynamics over the abrupt transition from a normal condition situation to the COVID-19 outbreak context, characterized by a short-time decrease of traffic intensities and industrial activities, revealing remarkable tropospheric NO2 column number density decreases even of 85% in some of the European big cities. The validation approach of the satellite-derived data, based on a cross-correlation analysis with independent data from ground-based observations, provided encouraging values of the correlation coefficients (R2), ranging between 0.5 and 0.75 in different locations. The remarkable decrease of NO2 pollution over Europe during the COVID-19 lockdown is highlighted by S-5P products and confirmed by the Industrial Production Index and air traffic volumes.
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