Ghahremanloo Masoud, Lops Yannic, Choi Yunsoo, Mousavinezhad Seyedali
Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, University of Houston, Houston, TX 77004, USA.
Sci Total Environ. 2021 Feb 1;754:142226. doi: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2020.142226. Epub 2020 Sep 7.
This study leverages satellite remote sensing to investigate the impact of the coronavirus outbreak and the resulting lockdown of public venues on air pollution levels in East Asia. We analyze data from the Sentinel-5P and the Himawari-8 satellites to examine concentrations of NO, HCHO, SO, and CO, and the aerosol optical depth (AOD) over the BTH, Wuhan, Seoul, and Tokyo regions in February 2019 and February 2020. Results show that most of the concentrations of pollutants are lower than those of February 2019. Compared to other pollutants, NO experienced the most significant reductions by almost 54%, 83%, 33%, and 19% decrease in BTH, Wuhan, Seoul, and Tokyo, respectively. The greatest reductions in pollutants occurred in Wuhan, with a decrease of almost 83%, 11%, 71%, and 4% in the column densities of NO, HCHO, SO, and CO, respectively, and a decrease of about 62% in the AOD. Although NO, CO, and formaldehyde concentrations decreased in the Seoul and Tokyo metropolitan areas compared to the previous year, concentrations of SO showed an increase in these two regions due to the effect of transport from polluted upwind regions. We also show that meteorological factors were not the main reason for the dramatic reductions of pollutants in the atmosphere. Moreover, an investigation of the HCHO/NO ratio shows that in many regions of East China, particularly in Wuhan, ozone production in February 2020 is less NO saturated during the daytime than it was in February 2019. With large reductions in the concentrations of NO during lockdown situations, we find that significant increases in surface ozone in East China from February 2019 to February 2020 are likely the result of less reaction of NO and O caused by significantly reduced NO concentrations and less NO saturation in East China during the daytime.
本研究利用卫星遥感技术,调查冠状病毒爆发及随之而来的公共场所封锁对东亚地区空气污染水平的影响。我们分析了哨兵 - 5P 和 Himawari - 8 卫星的数据,以检测 2019 年 2 月和 2020 年 2 月期间北京 - 天津 - 河北地区、武汉、首尔和东京地区的一氧化氮(NO)、甲醛(HCHO)、二氧化硫(SO)和一氧化碳(CO)浓度以及气溶胶光学厚度(AOD)。结果表明,大多数污染物浓度低于 2019 年 2 月。与其他污染物相比,NO 的减少最为显著,在北京 - 天津 - 河北地区、武汉、首尔和东京分别下降了近 54%、83%、33%和 19%。污染物减少幅度最大的是武汉,NO、HCHO、SO 和 CO 的柱密度分别下降了近 83%、11%、71%和 4%,AOD 下降了约 62%。尽管与上一年相比,首尔和东京都市区的 NO、CO 和甲醛浓度有所下降,但由于受上游污染地区传输影响,这两个地区的 SO 浓度有所上升。我们还表明,气象因素并非大气中污染物大幅减少的主要原因。此外,对 HCHO/NO 比值的调查表明,在华东许多地区,特别是武汉,2020 年 2 月白天臭氧生成的 NO 饱和度低于 2019 年 2 月。由于封锁期间 NO 浓度大幅下降,我们发现,从 2019 年 2 月到 2020 年 2 月,中国东部地表臭氧显著增加,这可能是由于 NO 浓度大幅降低导致 NO 与 O 的反应减少以及白天中国东部 NO 饱和度降低所致。