The novel SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus that emerged in the city of Wuhan, China, last year has since become the COVID-19 pandemic across all continents. To restrict the spread of the virus pandemic, the Government of India imposed a lockdown from 25 March 2020. In India, Kannur district was identified as the first “hotspot” of virus transmission and a “triple-lockdown” was implemented for a span of twenty days from 20 April 2020. This article highlights the variations of surface O3, NO, NO2, CO, SO2, NH3, VOC’s, PM10, PM2.5 and meteorological parameters at the time of pre-lockdown, lockdown and triple-lockdown days at Kannur town in south India using ground-based analyzers. From pre-lockdown days to triple-lockdown days, surface O3 concentration was found to increase by 22% in this VOC limited environment. NO and NO2 concentrations were decreased by 61% and 71% respectively. The concentration of PM10 and PM2.5 were observed to decline significantly by 61% and 53% respectively. Reduction in PM10 during lockdown and triple-lockdown days enhanced the intensity of solar radiation reaching the lower troposphere, and increased air temperature and reduced the relative humidity. Owing to this, surface O3 production over Kannur was found to have increased during triple-lockdown days. The concentration of CO (67%), VOCs (61%), SO2 (62%) and NH3 (16%) were found to decrease significantly from pre-lockdown days to triple-lockdown days. The air quality index revealed that the air quality at the observational site was clean during the lockdown.
Atmospheric ozone (O3) in the surface level plays a central role in determining air quality and atmospheric oxidizing capacity. In this paper, we review our comprehensive results of simultaneous measurements of surface ozone (O3) and its precursor gas (NOx) and weather parameters that were carried out continuously for a span of six years (January 2013–December 2018) at a typical rural coastal site, Kannur (11.9° N, 75.4° E) in South India. Surface O3 concentration reached its maximum during daytime hours and minimum during the night time. The influence of solar radiation and water content on variations of O3 are discussed. A Multi-Layer Perceptron (MLP) artificial neural network technique has been used to understand the effect of atmospheric temperature on the increase in O3 over the past six years. This has been found that temperature has been a major contributor to the increase in O3 levels over the years. The National Centre for Atmospheric Research- Master Mechanism (NCAR-MM) Photochemical box model study was conducted to validate the variations of O3 in different seasons and years, and the results were shown to be in good agreement with observed trends.
Ozone plays a significant part in regulating climate change and the chemical characteristics of the atmosphere. Changes in atmospheric ozone can be studied in more detail using ground-based and satellite-based instruments. Studies on the long-term global changes in total column ozone have begun more than three-decade ago using satellite data. The main objective of this work is to analyze the Total Column Ozone (TCO) variations, and tropospheric ozone variations over different twenty locations in the Indian subcontinent by using Total Ozone Mapping Spectrometer (TOMS) and AURA OMI/MLS data. The long-term analysis of total column ozone is divided into two phases (1979-1994 and 2005-2018), and tropospheric ozone for one phase (2005)(2006)(2007)(2008)(2009)(2010)(2011)(2012)(2013)(2014)(2015)(2016)(2017)(2018) in order to detect changes in the ozone trend pattern. The results of linear regression analysis show a declining trend of total column ozone, and an increasing trend of tropospheric ozone over the selected locations. The impact of wind pattern on the variation of ozone has been analyzed by using NCEP reanalysis data, and found that wind patterns played a prominent role in spatial and temporal changes in total and tropospheric ozone distribution over the subcontinent. Latitudinal variation of total column ozone from Nagarcoil to Anantanag has also been studied for the years 1979, 1994, 2005, and 2018, which indicates an increase in ozone concentration with latitude.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.
hi@scite.ai
10624 S. Eastern Ave., Ste. A-614
Henderson, NV 89052, USA
Copyright © 2024 scite LLC. All rights reserved.
Made with 💙 for researchers
Part of the Research Solutions Family.