Global assessment of tropospheric and ground air pollutants and its correlation with COVID-19

Abstract

The declaration of COVID-19 pandemic by the WHO initiated a series of lockdowns globally that varied in stringency and duration; however, the spatiotemporal effects of these lockdowns on air quality remain understudied. This study evaluates the global impact of lockdowns on air pollutants using tropospheric and ground-level indicators over a five-month period. Moreover, the relationship between air pollution and COVID-19 cases and mortalities was examined. Changes in the global tropospheric (NO 2 , aerosols, and O 3 ) and ground-level (PM 2.5 , PM 10 , NO 2 , and O 3 ) pollutants were observed, and the maximum air quality improvement was observed immediately after lockdown. Except for a few countries, a decline in air pollutants correlated with a reduction in Land Surface Temperature (LST). Notably, regions with higher tropospheric NO 2 and aerosol concentrations were also COVID-19 hotspots. Our analysis showed moderate positive correlation for NO 2 with COVID-19 cases (R 2 = 0.33; r = 0.57, P = 0.006) and mortalities (R 2 = 0.40; r = 0.63, P = 0.015), while O 3 showed a weak-moderate positive correlation with COVID-19 cases (R 2 = 0.22; r = 0.47, P = 0.003) and mortalities (R 2 = 0.12; r = 0.35, P = 0.012). However, PM 2.5 , and PM 10 showed no significant correlation with either COVID-19 cases or mortality. This study reveals that humans living under adverse air pollution conditions are at higher risk of COVID-19 infection and mortality.

Impact analysis of COVID-19 pandemic control measures on nighttime light and air quality in cities

“…Therefore, more work could be done to investigate the impact of COVID-19 control measures for the complete period in typical cities around the world after the end of the pandemic. Such research should include (1) using time-series NTL data and air quality to study the socioeconomic impacts of pandemic control measures on countries during the entire pandemic period; (2) implementing more stringent data quality control procedures to improve data accuracy; when higher accuracy Luojia series data or other data are published, we will conduct a similar study using high accuracy NTL data; (3) NTL remote sensing data combined with socioeconomic data to monitor global economic recovery for the post-pandemic era; (4) analysis of changes in air pollutant concentrations during the lockdown period, as this provides an opportunity to study the correlation between COVID-19 and air pollutant concentrations ( Naqvi et al, 2021 ).…”

Analysis of the health, economic and environmental impacts of COVID-19: The Bangladesh perspective

“…ESA (2020) reported that level of NO 2 reduced significantly in Asian countries (70%-India, 20 to 30%-China) during COVID-19 lockdown. Similarly, many studies conducted to update the improvement of Asian air quality due to lockdown during COVID-19 ( Naqvi et al, 2021a , 2021b ; Gautam et al, 2021b ; Gautam et al, 2020 ; Lalwani and Gautam, 2021; Naqvi et al, 2020 ). Air quality of Dhaka city was improved considerably during the lockdown and Air Quality Index (AQI) level dropped 16.74% in 2020 compared to 2019 ( Roy et al, 2020 ).…”

Impact of COVID-19 on Extremely Polluted Air Quality and Trend Forecast in Seven Provinces and Three Cities of China

“…The new crown virus was discovered at the end of 2019, and since then there have been endless discussions about the new crown. Because of severe air pollution in winter, humans are at higher risk of contracting the new crown (Naqvi et al, 2021). Therefore, more scholars have focused their research on the impact of air and climate on COVID-19 (Linares et al, 2021), NO 2 , PM 2.5 , PM10, O 3 are directly proportional to the incidence and mortality of COVID-19 (Montse and Domingo José, 2022).…”