Phase-wise analysis of the COVID-19 lockdown impact on aerosol, radiation and trace gases and associated chemistry in a tropical rural environment

Jain, Chaithanya D.; Madhavan, Bomidi Lakshmi; Singh, Vikas; Prasad, P. Durga; Krishnaveni, A. Sai; Kiran, V. Ravi; Ratnam, M. Venkat

doi:10.1016/j.envres.2020.110665

Cited by 33 publications

(27 citation statements)

References 61 publications

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“…Similarly, a study over Bhubaneswar depicted a 33% reduction in BC concentration during March-May 2020 compared to 2017-2018 of the same time frame [19]. BC concentration also showed a decline of 34% during lockdown over the same period of 2019 over Gadanki [36]. A notable dwindling in BC concentration (> 60%) during lockdown-1 over pre-lockdown (1st Jan-14th Mar 2020) is observed at Bengaluru, a megacity in southern India [55].…”

Section: Black Carbon (Bc)mentioning

confidence: 89%

“…A lower reduction of CO compared to the early phase of lockdown might be attributed to its long residence time in the atmosphere. Similarly, a lower reduction in CO ($10%) compared to other primary pollutants is observed at Gadanki during lockdown over the previous year [36]. However, CO measurement at five different sites of Chennai showed a prominent plummet in the range of 5.60-90.72% during lockdown (Table 3) [29].…”

Section: Carbon Monoxide (Co)mentioning

confidence: 95%

“…Studies over Bhubaneswar revealed that average NOx concentration decreased by $67% during quarantine days (24th Mar-31st May 2020) compared to pre-lockdown (1st -23rd Mar 2020) whereas 12.3% during Mar-May 2020 in comparison to 2019 of the same period [18,37]. Similarly, NO and NO2 reduced by $55 and 59% respectively, over Gadanki during lockdown with respect to 2019 [36]. Significant reduction in the range of 41-55% in NOx concentration is also observed at Chennai, the southern coastal site of India.…”

Section: Nitrogen Oxides (Nox)mentioning

confidence: 98%

“…Maharastra, the worst-hit state by COVID-19 showed that during 1st-24th Mar 2020 the PM10 concentration was above the NAAQS threshold limit (> 100 μg.m À3 ) which reduced sharply up to 51% during lockdown while PM2.5 dropped down by 46% over normalcy [31]. PM measurements over Gadanki, a rural site in south India revealed that PM2.5 and PM10 dropped down by $47% and 50% respectively from pre-lockdown (15th Feb -21st Mar 2020) to lockdown [36]. Similarly, studies over south India reported that PM2.5 reduced by 53%, 15-22%, and 24-47% over Kunnur, Bengaluru and Kerala respectively during lockdown over pre-lockdown (1st Jan-22nd Mar 2020) [30,39,40].…”

Section: Particulate Matter (Pm)mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…But Karachi, a coastal site near the Arabian sea showed an enhancement of 4% from pre-lockdown to lockdown. In addition, both ground-based and satellite measurements over Gadanki revealed a decrement of $17% of AOD during lockdown over 2019 [36]. AOD at 550 nm from January-April 2020 (source: [11]).…”

Section: Aerosol Optical Depth (Aod)mentioning

confidence: 99%

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COVID-19 Lockdown and the Aerosphere in India: Lessons Learned on How to Reduce Air Pollution

Panda¹,

Satpathy²,

Das³

et al. 2022

Biotechnology to Combat COVID-19

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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 pollutant) in many cities of India. Thus, lockdown emerged as a unique opportunity for the atmospheric researchers, policymakers as well as stakeholders to collect baseline data of pollutants and their major sources. This will help to set new targets of air quality standards and to develop various mitigation processes to combat air pollution.

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Section: Black Carbon (Bc)mentioning

confidence: 89%

Section: Carbon Monoxide (Co)mentioning

confidence: 95%

Section: Nitrogen Oxides (Nox)mentioning

confidence: 98%

Section: Particulate Matter (Pm)mentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Aerosol Optical Depth (Aod)mentioning

confidence: 99%

See 3 more Smart Citations

COVID-19 Lockdown and the Aerosphere in India: Lessons Learned on How to Reduce Air Pollution

Panda¹,

Satpathy²,

Das³

et al. 2022

Biotechnology to Combat COVID-19

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

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Atmospheric Boundary Layer Over Ahmedabad, Western Indian Region: Impact of COVID-19 Nationwide Lockdown

Saha

Sharma

Chhabra

et al. 2023

Pure Appl. Geophys.

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The government of India imposed a nationwide lockdown to tackle the outbreak of COVID-19 in 2020. This period witnessed record low anthropogenic activity, which had severe socio-economic impacts but also had orthogonal effects on the ambient air quality of the atmosphere. This study focuses on the variations in the atmospheric boundary layer (ABL) over a western Indian urban region in the light of COVID-19. Continuous backscatter recorded by a ceilometer, stationed at Ahmedabad, was used in this study to monitor the ABL during the national lockdown (NLD) in 2020 and state restrictions in 2021, and compared with the control year of 2019. In parallel, improvement in air quality during the NLD was observed by the SAFAR air quality station at Ahmedabad, with decreased particulate matter concentrations. The ground-based observations were substantiated by the ERA5 reanalysis dataset. A decline in the ABL height was recorded during the NLD, which showed improvement in 2021 but which was shy of the ABL in 2019. This was correlated with rain events during the observational period, recorded by an automatic weather station.

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Interpreting the COVID effect on atmospheric constituents over the Indian region during the lockdown: chemistry, meteorology, and seasonality

Yadav

Trivedi

Ghadai

et al. 2022

Environ Monit Assess

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Most of the published articles which document changes in atmospheric compositions during the various lockdown and unlock phases of COVID-19 pandemic have made a direct comparison to a reference point (which may be 1 year apart) for attribution of the COVID-mediated lockdown impact on atmospheric composition. In the present study, we offer a better attribution of the lockdown impacts by also considering the effect of meteorology and seasonality. We decrease the temporal distance between the impacted and reference points by considering the difference of adjacent periods first and then comparing the impacted point to the mean of several reference points in the previous years. Additionally, we conduct a multi-station analysis to get a holistic effect of the different climatic and emission regimes. In several places in eastern and coastal India, the seasonally induced changes already pointed to a decrease in PM concentrations based on the previous year data; hence, the actual decrease due to lockdown would be much less than that observed just on the basis of difference of concentrations between subsequent periods. In contrast, northern Indian stations would normally show an increase in PM concentration at the time of the year when lockdown was effected; hence, actual lockdown-induced change would be in surplus of the observed change. The impact of wind-borne transport of pollutants to the study sites dominates over the dilution effects. Box model simulations point to a VOC-sensitive composition.

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Phase-wise analysis of the COVID-19 lockdown impact on aerosol, radiation and trace gases and associated chemistry in a tropical rural environment

Cited by 33 publications

References 61 publications

COVID-19 Lockdown and the Aerosphere in India: Lessons Learned on How to Reduce Air Pollution

COVID-19 Lockdown and the Aerosphere in India: Lessons Learned on How to Reduce Air Pollution

Atmospheric Boundary Layer Over Ahmedabad, Western Indian Region: Impact of COVID-19 Nationwide Lockdown

Interpreting the COVID effect on atmospheric constituents over the Indian region during the lockdown: chemistry, meteorology, and seasonality

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