The Influence of COVID-19 on Air Quality in India: A Boon or Inutile (original) (raw)
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Spatial Information Research
The atmospheric aerosols and air pollutants affect the earth's atmosphere, human health and climate system. Human-induced aerosols and air pollutants are the major causes of the deterioration of air quality. The COVID-19 lockdown restricted the movement of people and vehicles, stopped industrial and agricultural activities and may have impacts on the aerosols in the atmosphere. Spatio-temporal map of MODIS Terra AOD_550 nm, OMI Aura UVAI, Ozone, NO 2 , SO 2 and AIRS CO during the lockdown illustrates the significant reduction in their concentration. During the lockdown, the North India shows a record reduction of over 20% in Aerosol Optical Depth and Aerosol Index values. A substantial decrease in AOD and AI was also observed in Eastern and Western parts of India. The average AOD value were reduced from 1.36 (2016-2019) to 1.09 (2020) over India during the lockdown. The satellite-retrieved aerosol variables over India recorded lowest AOD values on 29th March, 2020 (0.2566) and 21st April 2020 (0.2591). Similarly, air pollutants CO, NO2 and SO2 also significantly reduced in India. Despite all variables showing a reduction in concentration, Ozone recorded an increase in value during lockdown primarily over North and Northeastern parts of India. Western India recorded a substantial reduction in SO 2 (47%) followed by Central India (31%). As pan India is considered, CO was reduced by 1%, NO 2 reduced by 15.29% and SO 2 was reduced by 26.82% during the lockdown period. This abrupt reduction in aerosol and air pollutants concentration over India was mainly due to the lockdown of COVID-19.
Nationwide CoViD-19 lockdown impact on air quality in India
MAUSAM
This paper discusses the comparative results of surface and satellite measurements made during the Phase1 (25 March to 14 April), Phase2 (15 April to 3 May) and Phase3 (3 May to 17May) of Covid-19 imposed lockdown periods of 2020 and those of the same locations and periods during 2019 over India. These comparative analyses are performed for Indian states and Tier 1 megacities where economic activities have been severely affected with the nationwide lockdown. The focus is on changes in the surface concentration of sulfur dioxide (SO2), carbon monoxide (CO), PM2.5 and PM10, Ozone (O3), Nitrogen dioxide (NO2) and retrieved columnar NO2 from TROPOMI and Aerosol Optical Depth (AOD) from MODIS satellite. Surface concentrations of PM2.5 were reduced by 30.59%, 31.64% and 37.06%, PM10 by 40.64%, 44.95% and 46.58%, SO2 by 16.73%, 12.13% and 6.71%, columnar NO2 by 46.34%, 45.82% and 39.58% and CO by 45.08%, 41.51% and 60.45% during lockdown periods of Phase1, Phase2 and Phase3 respectively ...
Urban Climate
The enforced lockdown amid COVID-19 pandemic eased anthropogenic activities across India. The satellite-derived aerosol optical depth (AOD) and absorption AOD showed a significant reduction of ~30% over the Indo-Gangetic Basin (IGB) in north India during the lockdown period in 2020 with respect to the previous year 2019, when no such lockdown was in effect. Further, near-surface air pollutants were investigated at an urban megacity Delhi during 01 March to 31 May 2020. Except O 3 , a drastic reduction in PM 10 , PM 2.5 , NO, NO 2 and CO concentrations were observed by ~58%, 47%, 76%, 68% and 58%, respectively during the lockdown period of 2020 as compared to 2019. While, O 3 was low in the initial phase and gradually increased with progression of lockdown phases, the mean O 3 during the entire lockdown period was nearly similar in both the years. Though, all the measured pollutants showed significant reduction during the entire lockdown, a phase-wise enhancement, associated with the conditional relaxations was observed in their concentrations. Thus, the present results may help, not only to assess the impact of outbreak on air quality, but also in designing the mitigation policies in urban megacities in more efficient ways to combat the air pollution problems.
COVID-19 Lockdown and the Aerosphere in India: Lessons Learned on How to Reduce Air Pollution
Biotechnology to Combat COVID-19 [Working Title], 2021
The giant increase in COVID-19 infection across India forced the government to impose strict lockdown in order to curb the pandemic. Although the stringent restrictions crippled India’s economy and poor people’s livelihood, it significantly improved the air quality of most of the polluted cities of India and rejuvenated the atmosphere. Thus, the major objective of this study is to provide a comprehensive overview of lockdown on pollutants prevailing in the atmosphere. A prominent decline in primary pollutants such as Particulate matter (PM), Black carbon (BC), Oxides of nitrogen (NOx), Carbon monoxide (CO) is observed across the country. However, lockdown had a trifling impact on Sulphur dioxide (SO2) concentration over some parts of India due to the constant operation of coal-fired thermal plants as a part of essential service. Furthermore, the sudden decline in NOx concentration disturbed the complex atmospheric chemistry and lead to an enhancement of surface ozone (O3) (secondary...
The impact of COVID-19 as a necessary evil on air pollution in India during the lockdown
Environmental Pollution, 2020
The study objective is to contemplate the effectiveness of COVID-19 on the air pollution of Indian territory from January 2020 to April 2020. We have executed data from European Space Agency (ESA) and CPCB online portal for air quality data dissemination. The Sentinel e 5 P satellite images elucidate that the Air quality of Indian territory has been improved significantly during COVID-19. Mumbai and Delhi are one of the most populated cities. These two cities have observed a substantial decrease in Nitrogen Dioxide (40e50%) compared to the same period last year. It suggests that the emergence of COVID-19 has been proved to a necessary evil as being advantageous for mitigating air pollution on Indian territory during the lock-down. The study found a significant decline in Nitrogen Dioxide in reputed states of India, i.e., Delhi and Mumbai. Moreover, a faded track of Nitrogen Dioxide can be seen at the Maritime route in the Indian Ocean. An upsurge in the environmental quality of India will also be beneficial for its neighbor countries, i.e., China, Pakistan, Iran, and Afghanistan.
Effects of COVID-19 lockdown phases in India: an atmospheric perspective
Environment, Development and Sustainability, 2021
Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is an infectious disease caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus. It was first identified in December 2019 in Wuhan, Hubei, China, and has resulted in an ongoing pandemic. As of 5 July 2020, more than 11.1 million cases have been reported across 188 countries and territories, resulting in more than 528,000 deaths. More than 6.03 million people have recovered. The entire world population currently faces enormous challenges (i.e., social, environmental, health, and economic) due to the impact of COVID-19. In this regard, the affected countries are now trying to slow down the virus's transmission through social-distancing, lockdowns, increasing the number of tests and treatment facilities. There have been four lockdowns (25 March 2020-31 May 2020), and two unlock periods (1 June-31 July 2020) in India. Aerosol Optical Depth (AOD) has been analyzed using MODIS satellite data during various phases of lockdowns over India. With the implementation of lockdown steps, AOD values dropped significantly over various regions. A significant reduction in AOD over the North-Central regions (up to −50%) compared to the regions in the South or Northeast India. The AOD over these regions was significantly affected by the lock/unlock phases. It was also observed that there was a considerable buildup of AOD during the pre-lockdown period in the year 2020 as compared to the past two years.
Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on the Air Quality in Delhi, India
Nature Environment and Pollution Technology, 2020
The COVID-19 pandemic is one of the biggest health calamities that the world has faced, which has infected millions of people and lead to hundreds of thousands of deaths all over the world. It has impacted the economic, social and health aspects of the countries to quite an extreme level. But an indirect positive impact can also be seen on the environment. In this paper, taking the example of Delhi, one of the most polluted cities of India, an analysis has been done to compare the levels of air pollutants (PM2.5, PM10, NOx and ozone) during the lockdown and the same period in the previous years. The study shows that the extent to which the industries, vehicles, power plants etc. release the air pollutants and severely impact the environment and human health. As during the lockdown when all such activities were either stopped or very much restricted, a reduction of almost 60% in the particulate matter pollution and up to 40% in the NOx pollution was observed while the ozone levels were reduced by 30-40% as compared to the same period during the previous two years. In the end, some suggestions have been made which can play some part to control air pollution once the lockdown is over.
Enchanted Improvements in Air Quality across India-A Studyfrom COVID-19 Lockdown Perspective
Adalya Journal, 2020
The whole world is connected in the economic front through import and export of food products, drugs and medical instruments, IT Services, automobiles, Heavy Equipments and many more. After Globalization, it is needless to say that, it brings the spring back effect of exporting the deceases and viruses which are developing in the smallest region of one country to all other parts in the globe. The Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19) is one of those viruses recently identified from Wuhan city of china and spread around 200 nations. It is affecting the entire world to go for a lockdown of most countries and halt its business activities like IT Sectors, manufacturing industries, transportation, Logistics, free movement of people from one place to another place interstate and intra-state. However, there is various positive outcome due to COVID-19 on the environment. In this paper, we discuss the positive and negative impact of the lockdown. Further, we talk about the Air pollution level before and after COVID-19 and compare the average value on both sessions to understand how Coronavirus helped to restore the air quality.