Impact of lockdown on air quality over major cities across the globe during COVID-19 pandemic

In present study, the variation in concentration of key air pollutants such as PM(2.5), PM(10), NO(2), SO(2) and O(3) during the pre-lockdown and post-lockdown phase has been investigated. In addition, the monthly concentration of air pollutants in March, April and May of 2020 is also compared with that of 2019 to unfold the effect of restricted emissions under similar meteorological conditions. To evaluate the global impact of COVID-19 on the air quality, ground-based data from 162 monitoring stations from 12 cities across the globe are analysed for the first time. The concentration of PM(2.5), PM(10) and NO(2) were reduced by 20–34%, 24–47% and 32–64%, respectively, due to restriction on anthropogenic emission sources during lockdown. However, a lower reduction in SO(2) was observed due to functional power plants. O(3) concentration was found to be increased due to the declined emission of NO. Nevertheless, the achieved improvements were temporary as the pollution level has gone up again in cities where lockdown was lifted. The study might assist the environmentalist, government and policymakers to curb down the air pollution in future by implementing the strategic lockdowns at the pollution hotspots with minimal economic loss.