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Unprecedented reduction in airborne aerosol particles and nitrogen dioxide level in response to COVID-19 pandemic lockdown over the Indo-Pak region
  • +3
  • Arfan Arshad,
  • Saddam Hussain,
  • Farhan Saleem,
  • Muhammad Shafeeque,
  • Shahbaz Nasir Khan,
  • Muhammad Sohail Waqas
Arfan Arshad
Chinese Academy of Sciences

Corresponding Author:[email protected]

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Saddam Hussain
Department of Irrigation and Drainage Engineering, University of Agriculture Faisalabad, Pakistan
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Farhan Saleem
International Center for Climate and Environment Sciences, Institute of Atmospheric Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100029, PR China
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Muhammad Shafeeque
Institute of Geographical Sciences and Natural Resources Research, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences
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Shahbaz Nasir Khan
Departments of Structures and Environmental Engineering, University of Agriculture Faisalabad, Pakistan
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Muhammad Sohail Waqas
Soil Conservation Group, Punjab Agriculture Department (Field Wing), Rawalpindi 46000, Pakistan
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Abstract

The present study have used space observations of NO emission (OMI) and aerosol optical depth (AOD) (MODIS) from the last couple of years (2015-2019) to investigate the changes in air pollution in response to COVID-19 pandemic during the lockdown period (Mar-May, 2020) over the Indo-Pak region. Result of this study reveals a huge drop in air pollution that accounted for 40-50% reduction in NO emissions and 45% in AOD over the whole Indo-Pak region. The major metropolitan areas (cities) of the region showed a remarkable decrease in NO emissions, whereas the calculated rate of reduction was found highest for the city of Lahore (Pak) ranges between 29-52% followed by Ahmadabad (Chennai) as 27-52% (32-42%) respectively. The geospatial analysis revealed the existence of positive correlation (range from 0.23-0.50) between AOD and NO emissions, which further implies that a decrease in AOD may be attributed to reduction in NO to some extents.