Abstract
COVID-19 is a deadly pandemic affecting cities in the US, which slows
down life and has affected many different sectors of our daily lives
such as business, travel, hospitality, and education. With the growing
COVID-19 cases, some of the states have issued advisories to the people
to stay home and keep social distancing. It has been observed that
people have followed the social distancing regulations in some states,
whereas in others the regulations were not heeded. We have analyzed
various atmospheric parameters over the capital cities of the US during
the COVID-19 lockdown. We have carried out an analysis of the daily
Aerosol Optical Depth (AOD) and Nitrogen Dioxide (NO2) data derived from
the MODIS Terra, Aqua, and AIRS satellite, which could provide
information about the decline in traffic emissions during the period
January – June 2020. Comparison of this data with the same period of
2019 shows a decline in AOD and NO2 which can be due to the fact that
some of the US capitals have strictly followed social distancing and
some of the states ignored and as a result the COVID-19 cases have
surged in many cities. We have studied PM2.5 using the published data
from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the total column of
ozone retrieved from OMI AURA satellite. A decline in the particle
matter (PM2.5) and observed an increase in the total column of ozone.
The COVID-19 lockdown shows an improvement in air quality, good for
human health but on the other hand, lockdown has seriously impacted the
day to day life.