Impacts of COVID-19 on air quality in mid-eastern China: An insight into meteorology and emissions

The coronavirus disease (COVID-19) spread rapidly worldwide in the first half of 2020. Stringent national lockdown policies imposed by China to prevent the spread of the virus reduced anthropogenic emissions and improved air quality. A weather research and forecasting model coupled with chemistry was applied to evaluate the impact of meteorology and emissions on air quality during the COVID-19 outbreak (from January 23 to February 29, 2020) in mid-eastern China. The results show that air pollution episodes still occurred on polluted days and accounted for 31.6%–60.5% of the total number of outbreak days in mid-eastern China from January 23 to February 29, 2020. However, anthropogenic emissions decreased significantly, indicating that anthropogenic emission reduction cannot completely offset the impact of unfavorable meteorological conditions on air quality. Favorable meteorological conditions in 2019 improved the overall air quality for a COVID-19 outbreak in 2019 instead of 2020. PM(2.5) concentrations decreased by 4.2%–29.2% in Beijing, Tianjin, Shijiazhuang, and Taiyuan, and increased by 6.1%–11.5% in Jinan and Zhengzhou. PM(2.5) concentrations increased by 10.9%–20.5% without the COVID-19 outbreak of 2020 in mid-eastern China, and the frequency of polluted days increased by 5.3%–18.4%. Source apportionment of PM(2.5) during the COVID-19 outbreak showed that industry and residential emissions were the dominant PM(2.5) contributors (32.7%–49.6% and 26.0%–44.5%, respectively) followed by agriculture (18.7%–24.0%), transportation (7.7%–15.5%), and power (4.1%–5.9%). In Beijing, industrial and residential contributions to PM(2.5) concentrations were lower (32.7%) and higher (44.5%), respectively, than in other cities (38.7%–49.6% for industry and 26.0%–36.2% for residential). Therefore, enhancing regional cooperation and implementing a united air pollution control are effective emission mitigation measures for future air quality improvement, especially the development of new technologies for industrial and cooking fumes.