Tropical Map Research Group, Faculty of Built Environment & Surveying, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, 81310 Skudai, Johor, Malaysia; Centre for Environmental Sustainability and Water Security (IPASA), Research Institute for Sustainable Environment, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, 81310 UTM Skudai, Johor, Malaysia.
Tropical Map Research Group, Faculty of Built Environment & Surveying, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, 81310 Skudai, Johor, Malaysia.
Sci Total Environ. 2020 Sep 20;736:139658. doi: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2020.139658. Epub 2020 May 25.
Since its first appearance in Wuhan, China at the end of 2019, the new coronavirus (COVID-19) has evolved a global pandemic within three months, with more than 4.3 million confirmed cases worldwide until mid-May 2020. As many countries around the world, Malaysia and other southeast Asian (SEA) countries have also enforced lockdown at different degrees to contain the spread of the disease, which has brought some positive effects on natural environment. Therefore, evaluating the reduction in anthropogenic emissions due to COVID-19 and the related governmental measures to restrict its expansion is crucial to assess its impacts on air pollution and economic growth. In this study, we used aerosol optical depth (AOD) observations from Himawari-8 satellite, along with tropospheric NO column density from Aura-OMI over SEA, and ground-based pollution measurements at several stations across Malaysia, in order to quantify the changes in aerosol and air pollutants associated with the general shutdown of anthropogenic and industrial activities due to COVID-19. The lockdown has led to a notable decrease in AOD over SEA and in the pollution outflow over the oceanic regions, while a significant decrease (27% - 30%) in tropospheric NO was observed over areas not affected by seasonal biomass burning. Especially in Malaysia, PM, PM, NO, SO, and CO concentrations have been decreased by 26-31%, 23-32%, 63-64%, 9-20%, and 25-31%, respectively, in the urban areas during the lockdown phase, compared to the same periods in 2018 and 2019. Notable reductions are also seen at industrial, suburban and rural sites across the country. Quantifying the reductions in major and health harmful air pollutants is crucial for health-related research and for air-quality and climate-change studies.
自 2019 年底在中国武汉首次出现以来，新型冠状病毒（COVID-19）在三个月内演变成了一场全球大流行，截至 2020 年 5 月中旬，全球已确诊病例超过 430 万例。与世界上许多国家一样，马来西亚和其他东南亚（SEA）国家也在不同程度上实施了封锁，以遏制疾病的传播，这对自然环境产生了一些积极影响。因此，评估 COVID-19 导致的人为排放减少以及相关政府限制其扩散的措施，对于评估其对空气污染和经济增长的影响至关重要。在这项研究中，我们使用了来自 Himawari-8 卫星的气溶胶光学深度（AOD）观测数据，以及 Aura-OMI 提供的对流层 NO 柱密度数据，以及马来西亚各地几个站点的地面污染测量数据，以量化与 COVID-19 导致的人为和工业活动普遍关闭相关的气溶胶和空气污染物的变化。封锁导致 SEA 地区的 AOD 和海洋地区的污染流出量显著减少，而在不受季节性生物质燃烧影响的地区，对流层 NO 显著减少（27%-30%）。特别是在马来西亚，城市地区的 PM、PM、NO、SO 和 CO 浓度在封锁期间分别下降了 26%-31%、23%-32%、63%-64%、9%-20%和 25%-31%，与 2018 年和 2019 年同期相比。在全国范围内的工业、郊区和农村地区也观察到显著的减少。量化主要和对健康有害的空气污染物的减少对于与健康相关的研究以及空气质量和气候变化研究至关重要。
