Year-round changes in tropospheric nitrogen dioxide caused by COVID-19 in China using satellite observation.

ABSTRACT: The lockdown policy deals a severe blow to the economy and greatly reduces the nitrogen oxides (NOx) emission in China when the coronavirus 2019 spreads widely in early 2020. Here we use satellite observations from Tropospheric Monitoring Instrument to study the year-round variation of the nitrogen dioxide (NO₂) tropospheric vertical column density (TVCD) in 2020. The NO₂ TVCD reveals a sharp drop, followed by small fluctuations and then a strong rebound when compared to 2019. By the end of 2020, the annual average NO₂ TVCD declines by only 3.4% in China mainland, much less than the reduction of 24.1% in the lockdown period. On the basis of quantitative analysis, we find the rebound of NO₂ TVCD is mainly caused by the rapid recovery of economy es

SUBMITTER: Luo Z 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8761557 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature