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Spatiotemporal investigations of multi-sensor air pollution data over Bangladesh during COVID-19 lockdown

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Version 2 2023-06-12, 09:47
Version 1 2023-06-09, 23:31
journal contribution
posted on 2023-06-12, 09:47 authored by Zhongfeng Qiu, Arfan Ali, Janet E Nichol, Muhammad Bilal, Pravash Tiwari, Birhanu Asmerom Habtemicheal, Mansour Almazroui, Sanjit Kumar Mondal, Usman Mazhar, Yu Wang, Sajib Sarker, Farhan Mustafa, Muhammad Ashfaqur Rahman
This study investigates spatio-temporal changes in air pollution (particulate as well as gases) during the COVID-19 lockdown period over major cities of Bangladesh. The study investigated the aerosol optical depth (AOD) from Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) onboard Terra and Aqua satellites, PM2.5 and PM10 from Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service (CAMS), and NO2 and O3 from Tropomi-5P, from March to June 2019–2020. Additionally, aerosol sub-types from the Cloud-Aerosol Lidar and Infrared Pathfinder (CALIPSO) were used to explore the aerosol types. The strict lockdown (26 March–30 May 2020) led to a significant re-duction in AOD (up to 47%) in all major cities, while the partial-lockdown (June 2020) led to in-creased and decreased AOD over the study area. Significant reductions in PM2.5 (37–77%) and PM10 (33–70%) were also observed throughout the country during the strict lockdown- and par-tial-lockdown. The NO2 levels decreased by 3–25% in March 2020 in the cities of Rajshahi, Chat-togram, Sylhet, Khulna, Barisal, and Mymensingh, in April by 3–43% in Dhaka, Chattogram, Khulna, Barisal, Bhola and Mymensingh, and May by 12-42% in Rajshahi, Sylhet, Mymensingh, and Rangpur. During the partial-lockdown in June, NO2 decreased (9-35%) in Dhaka, Chatto-gram, Sylhet, Khulna, Barisal, and Rangpur compared to 2019. On the other hand, increases were observed in ozone (O3) levels, with an average increase of 3–12% throughout the country during the strict lockdown and only a slight reduction of 1–3% in O3 during the partial-lockdown. In terms of aerosol types, CALIPSO observed high levels of polluted dust followed by dust, smoke, polluted continental, and clean marine type aerosols over the country in 2019, but all types were decreased during the lockdown. The study concludes that the strict lockdown measures were able to significantly improve air quality conditions over Bangladesh due to the shutdown of industries, vehicles, and movement of people.

History

Publication status

  • Published

File Version

  • Published version

Journal

Remote Sensing

ISSN

2072-4292

Publisher

MDPI

Issue

5

Volume

13

Page range

1-27

Article number

a877

Department affiliated with

  • Geography Publications

Notes

This article belongs to the Special Issue Remote Sensing of Atmospheric Aerosols over Asia: Methods and Applications

Full text available

  • Yes

Peer reviewed?

  • Yes

Legacy Posted Date

2021-04-08

First Open Access (FOA) Date

2021-04-08

First Compliant Deposit (FCD) Date

2021-04-08

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