Impact of COVID-19 outbreak on tropospheric NO2 pollution assessed using Satellite-ground perspectives observations in India

Abstract

The global outbreak of Novel Corona Virus 2019 (SARS-CoV-2) has made worldwide lockdown including India since March 24, 2020. The current research aims at the improvements of nitrogen dioxide (NO 2 ) during the COVID-19 lockdown in India. This research has been done using both the open source data sets taken from satellite and ground based for better analysis. For the satellite-based analysis, the Sentinel 5 Precauser’s Tropospheric NO 2 from the European Space Agency and for the ground-based numeric data sets from Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) has been used. During the COVID-19 disease, outbreak the world has set in quarantine and as an overcome air quality improved in Asian countries after national lockdown, the average NO 2 rates plummeted calculated by 40–50%. Similarly, it dramatically decreased in Asia during the COVID-19 pandemic quarantine period. The basic statistical patterns of the NO 2 concentration spectrum of historical data sets (2018–2020) bi-weekly showed during October to March were seen higher in each year. Related with National Ambient Air Quality Standards of mean of NO 2 in India our result shown in the NO 2 levels fall in 21 μg/m 3 during the national lockdown, from the Central Pollution Control Board’s air quality standards it almost decreased 50% of the hourly mean in India. This caused by the sudden restriction to the development of manufacturing and the transportations which ultimately minimized the fossil fuel burning which cause the most of the NO 2 releases to the atmosphere. Nowadays, people are aware about comparatively prosperous future with clear blue skies and uses of renewable energy sources from the nature.

Impact of Covid-19 Lockdown Precautions on Air Pollutants in Turkey

“…Similarly, with the COVID-19 precautions, compared to the same days of 2019, the decrease rate in NO2 concentrations in some countries, regions, and cities after the lockdown is 30% for Wuhan, 25% for China, Europe, Italy, France, Spain, 30% for the USA, 40% for Mumbai, 50% for New Delhi (Muhammad et al, 2020), and 54.3% São Paulo state, Brazil (Nakada & Urban, 2020). According to data from Sentinel-5P Nitrogen Dioxide tropospheric column, NO2 concentration decreased by 40-50% from 2019 January to 2020 April in industrial areas in India (Balamadeswaran et al, 2021;ESA, 2021b). In a study conducted in the UK, it was stated that the NO2 pollution on the roadsides decreased slightly with the COVID-19 precautions by comparing the same months of 2019 and 2020 (EEA, 2021; ESA, 2021a).…”

Air quality trends in rural India: analysis of NO2 pollution using satellite measurements

“…The mean annual temperature is >24 °C in tropical regions, 17–24 °C in the subtropical region, 7–17 °C in the temperate region and <7 °C in the Alpine region. India has around 17.5% of the global population and the seventh-largest land region 26 of 3 287 263 km 2 . Here, we analyse NO 2 column density over rural regions of India.…”

“…[23][24][25] By 2030, India's coalbased power production is expected to be more than double than that of the current 197 GW, which is predicted to inict 186 500-229 500 deaths per year. 26,27 Estimates of India's annual premature mortality due to poor air quality range from 580 000 to more than one million individuals. 28 Karambelas et al 29 studied the premature mortality in rural regions (3 83 600) due to PM 2.5 , which proves to be a notable monetary loss to the Indian economy.…”

Towards the impact of COVID-19 on the Environment, Education, and Economy (EEE)

“…Climate scientists revealed that the level of GHGs in the atmosphere was dropped to the lowest ever since World War II (Nigam et al, 2021). Balamadeswaran et al (Balamadeswaran et al, 2021) found that NO 2 in the atmosphere fell significantly during the lockdown. Few vehicles were running on the roads, and closed down industries.…”