2020 presented the ideal conditions for studying the air quality response to several emission reductions due to the COVID-19 lockdowns. Numerous studies found that the tropospheric ozone increased even in lockdown conditions, but its reasons are not entirely understood. This research aims to better understand the ozone variations in Northern South America. Satellite and reanalysis data were used to analyze regional ozone variations. An analysis of two of the most polluted Colombian cities was performed by quantifying the changes of ozone and its precursors and by doing a machine learning decomposition to disentangle the contributions that precursors and meteorology made to form O
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. The results indicated that regional ozone increased in most areas, especially where wildfires are present. Meteorology is associated with favorable conditions to promote wildfires in Colombia and Venezuela. Regarding the local analysis, the machine learning ensemble shows that the decreased titration process associated with the NO plummeting owing to mobility reduction is the main contributor to the O
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increase (≈50%). These tools lead to conclude that (i) the increase in O
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produced by the reduction of the titration process that would be associated with an improvement in mobile sources technology has to be considered in the new air quality policies, (ii) a boost in international cooperation is essential to control wildfires since an event that occurs in one country can affect others and (iii) a machine learning decomposition approach coupled with sensitivity experiments can help us explain and understand the physicochemical mechanism that drives ozone formation.
Supplementary Information
The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s11869-023-01303-6.
Objetivos de desarrollo sostenible el de las dimensiones porque permite integrar características integrales, especialmente las relacionadas con el capital humano.Su propósito es medir las condiciones de vida de la población a través de quince dimensiones: entorno y calidad de la vivienda, acceso a servicios públicos, medio ambiente, escolaridad, desescolarización, movilidad, capital físico del hogar, participación, libertad y seguridad, vulnerabilidad, salud, trabajo, recreación, percepción de la calidad de vida e ingresos.Con este índice se da un paso adelante en la comprensión y en la medición de las dimensiones del bienestar, porque permite calificar los resultados de las políticas frente a criterios de desarrollo.
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