COVID-19: Spaceborne Nitrogen Dioxide Over Turkey

Abstract

As a reason for a pandemic, the global novel COVID-19 virus has affected all of the World and caused lockdowns in many countries. Naturally, with decreased anthropogenic activities, the influence of the people over the environment has declined. Thus, improvement in air quality has been noticed. With the use of remote sensing data, in this short communication, we observed the Nitrogen Dioxide (NO2) over Turkey in the first month from the first appearance of the virus. Then, we compare the results with the same period from last year. Results show a significant reduction in the NO2 amount, especially in the most populated areas in Turkey.

Impact of COVID-19 lockdown upon the air quality and surface urban heat island intensity over the United Arab Emirates

“…The analysis showed that the six Emirates experienced a decline in NO 2 levels because of restricted transportation and factories' closure. This result is compatible with other earlier studies undertaken in various regions around the globe ( Baldasano, 2020 ; Dantas et al, 2020 ; Islam et al, 2020 ; Kaplan and Avdan, 2020 ; Sharma et al, 2020 ). Fig.…”

“…Likewise, during the COVID-19 pandemic, many other recent studies show a significant decline in the level of air pollutants such as NO 2 , SO 2 , PM 10 , PM 2.5 , CO, etc. globally ( Archer et al, 2020 ; Collivignarelli et al, 2020 ; Dantas et al, 2020 ; Islam et al, 2020 ; Kaplan and Avdan, 2020 ; Kerimray et al, 2020 ; Nakada and Urban, 2020 ; Ranjan et al, 2020a ; Wang and Su, 2020 ). However, while studies generally showed a reduction in the primary pollutants, some studies showed no reduction in air pollution.…”

Preliminary Assessment of Air During COVID-19 Lockdown: An Unintended Benefit to Environment

“…Additionally, considering the results of other towns the NO2 values has declined during lockdown and presents the improvement in air quality. Therefore, in support of this result, several studies have been reported globally (Aloi et al, 2020;Bao and Zhang, 2020;Bashir et al, 2020;Kerimray et al, 2020;Kaplan and Avdan, 2020;İban, 2020).…”

Effect of COVID-19 pandemic on ambient air quality and excess risk of particulate matter in Turkey

“…The NO 2 reductions were found to be 20-30 % in Wuhan, China, Europe, Italy, France, Spain, and USA following lockdown periods ( NASA 2020 , ESA 2020 ). Kaplan and Avdan (2020) investigated the effect of COVID-19 on NO 2 concentration in Turkey during the March 15-April 15 periods in 2019 and 2020. They reported that the mean concentration of NO 2 was found to be in the range of 50 to 220 µmol/m 2 in 2019, it was in the range of 40 to 135 µmol/m 2 during COVID-19 period in 2020.…”