Frequency distribution of pollutant concentrations over Indian megacities impacted by the COVID-19 lockdown.

Publisher: Springer Country of Publication: Germany NLM ID: 9441769 Publication Model: Print-Electronic Cited Medium: Internet ISSN: 1614-7499 (Electronic) Linking ISSN: 09441344 NLM ISO Abbreviation: Environ Sci Pollut Res Int Subsets: MEDLINE

Publication: <2013->: Berlin : Springer
Original Publication: Landsberg, Germany : Ecomed

COVID-19* ; Air Pollutants*/analysis ; Environmental Pollutants*/analysis ; Air Pollution*/analysis; Humans ; Cities ; Environmental Monitoring ; Communicable Disease Control ; Particulate Matter/analysis

The megacities experience poor air quality frequently due to stronger anthropogenic emissions. India had one of the longest lockdowns in 2020 to curb the spread of COVID-19, leading to reductions in the emissions from anthropogenic activities. In this article, the frequency distributions of different pollutants have been analysed over two densely populated megacities: Delhi (28.70° N; 77.10° E) and Kolkata (22.57° N; 88.36° E). In Delhi, the percentage of days with PM 2.5 levels exceeding the National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS) between 25 March and 17 June dropped from 98% in 2019 to 61% in 2020. The lockdown phase 1 brought down the PM 10 (particulate matter having an aerodynamic diameter ≤ 10 μm) levels below the daily NAAQS limit over Delhi and Kolkata. However, PM 10 exceeded the limit of 100 μgm ^-3 during phases 2-5 of lockdown over Delhi due to lower temperature, weaker winds, increased relative humidity and commencement of limited traffic movement. The PM 2.5 levels exhibit a regressive trend in the highest range from the year 2019 to 2020 in Delhi. The daily mean value for PM 2.5 concentrations dropped from 85-90 μgm ^-3 to 40-45 μgm ^-3 bin, whereas the PM 10 levels witnessed a reduction from 160-180 μgm ^-3 to 100-120 μgm ^-3 bin due to the lockdown. Kolkata also experienced a shift in the peak of PM 10 distribution from 80-100 μgm ^-3 in 2019 to 20-40 μgm ^-3 during the lockdown. The PM 2.5 levels in peak frequency distribution were recorded in the 35-40 μgm ^-3 bin in 2019 which dropped to 15-20 μgm ^-3 in 2020. In line with particulate matter, other primary gaseous pollutants (NO x , CO, SO 2 , NH 3 ) also showed decline. However, changes in O 3 showed mixed trends with enhancements in some of the phases and reductions in other phases. In contrast to daily mean O 3 , 8-h maximum O 3 showed a reduction over Delhi during lockdown phases except for phase 3. Interestingly, the time of daily maximum was observed to be delayed by ~ 2 h over Delhi (from 1300 to 1500 h) and ~ 1 h over Kolkata (from 1300 to 1400 h) almost coinciding with the time of maximum temperature, highlighting the role of meteorology versus precursors. Emission reductions weakened the chemical sink of O 3 leading to enhancement (120%; 11 ppbv) in night-time O 3 over Delhi during phases 1-3.
(© 2021. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.)

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Keywords: Anthropogenic emissions; COVID-19; Frequency distribution; Lockdown; Megacities; NAAQS

0 (Air Pollutants)
0 (Environmental Pollutants)
0 (Particulate Matter)

Date Created: 20211021 Date Completed: 20221121 Latest Revision: 20230117

20231215

PMC8529380

10.1007/s11356-021-16874-z

34674132