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Global fine-scale changes in ambient NO(2) during COVID-19 lockdowns

Nitrogen dioxide (NO(2)) is an important contributor to air pollution and can adversely affect human health(1–9). A decrease in NO(2) concentrations has been reported as a result of lockdown measures to reduce the spread of COVID-19(10–20). Questions remain, however, regarding the relationship of sa...

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Autores principales: Cooper, Matthew J., Martin, Randall V., Hammer, Melanie S., Levelt, Pieternel F., Veefkind, Pepijn, Lamsal, Lok N., Krotkov, Nickolay A., Brook, Jeffrey R., McLinden, Chris A.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Nature Publishing Group UK 2022
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8770130/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35046607
http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41586-021-04229-0
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author Cooper, Matthew J.
Martin, Randall V.
Hammer, Melanie S.
Levelt, Pieternel F.
Veefkind, Pepijn
Lamsal, Lok N.
Krotkov, Nickolay A.
Brook, Jeffrey R.
McLinden, Chris A.
author_facet Cooper, Matthew J.
Martin, Randall V.
Hammer, Melanie S.
Levelt, Pieternel F.
Veefkind, Pepijn
Lamsal, Lok N.
Krotkov, Nickolay A.
Brook, Jeffrey R.
McLinden, Chris A.
author_sort Cooper, Matthew J.
collection PubMed
description Nitrogen dioxide (NO(2)) is an important contributor to air pollution and can adversely affect human health(1–9). A decrease in NO(2) concentrations has been reported as a result of lockdown measures to reduce the spread of COVID-19(10–20). Questions remain, however, regarding the relationship of satellite-derived atmospheric column NO(2) data with health-relevant ambient ground-level concentrations, and the representativeness of limited ground-based monitoring data for global assessment. Here we derive spatially resolved, global ground-level NO(2) concentrations from NO(2) column densities observed by the TROPOMI satellite instrument at sufficiently fine resolution (approximately one kilometre) to allow assessment of individual cities during COVID-19 lockdowns in 2020 compared to 2019. We apply these estimates to quantify NO(2) changes in more than 200 cities, including 65 cities without available ground monitoring, largely in lower-income regions. Mean country-level population-weighted NO(2) concentrations are 29% ± 3% lower in countries with strict lockdown conditions than in those without. Relative to long-term trends, NO(2) decreases during COVID-19 lockdowns exceed recent Ozone Monitoring Instrument (OMI)-derived year-to-year decreases from emission controls, comparable to 15 ± 4 years of reductions globally. Our case studies indicate that the sensitivity of NO(2) to lockdowns varies by country and emissions sector, demonstrating the critical need for spatially resolved observational information provided by these satellite-derived surface concentration estimates.
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spelling pubmed-87701302022-02-04 Global fine-scale changes in ambient NO(2) during COVID-19 lockdowns Cooper, Matthew J. Martin, Randall V. Hammer, Melanie S. Levelt, Pieternel F. Veefkind, Pepijn Lamsal, Lok N. Krotkov, Nickolay A. Brook, Jeffrey R. McLinden, Chris A. Nature Article Nitrogen dioxide (NO(2)) is an important contributor to air pollution and can adversely affect human health(1–9). A decrease in NO(2) concentrations has been reported as a result of lockdown measures to reduce the spread of COVID-19(10–20). Questions remain, however, regarding the relationship of satellite-derived atmospheric column NO(2) data with health-relevant ambient ground-level concentrations, and the representativeness of limited ground-based monitoring data for global assessment. Here we derive spatially resolved, global ground-level NO(2) concentrations from NO(2) column densities observed by the TROPOMI satellite instrument at sufficiently fine resolution (approximately one kilometre) to allow assessment of individual cities during COVID-19 lockdowns in 2020 compared to 2019. We apply these estimates to quantify NO(2) changes in more than 200 cities, including 65 cities without available ground monitoring, largely in lower-income regions. Mean country-level population-weighted NO(2) concentrations are 29% ± 3% lower in countries with strict lockdown conditions than in those without. Relative to long-term trends, NO(2) decreases during COVID-19 lockdowns exceed recent Ozone Monitoring Instrument (OMI)-derived year-to-year decreases from emission controls, comparable to 15 ± 4 years of reductions globally. Our case studies indicate that the sensitivity of NO(2) to lockdowns varies by country and emissions sector, demonstrating the critical need for spatially resolved observational information provided by these satellite-derived surface concentration estimates. Nature Publishing Group UK 2022-01-19 2022 /pmc/articles/PMC8770130/ /pubmed/35046607 http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41586-021-04229-0 Text en © The Author(s) 2022 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons license and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) .
spellingShingle Article
Cooper, Matthew J.
Martin, Randall V.
Hammer, Melanie S.
Levelt, Pieternel F.
Veefkind, Pepijn
Lamsal, Lok N.
Krotkov, Nickolay A.
Brook, Jeffrey R.
McLinden, Chris A.
Global fine-scale changes in ambient NO(2) during COVID-19 lockdowns
title Global fine-scale changes in ambient NO(2) during COVID-19 lockdowns
title_full Global fine-scale changes in ambient NO(2) during COVID-19 lockdowns
title_fullStr Global fine-scale changes in ambient NO(2) during COVID-19 lockdowns
title_full_unstemmed Global fine-scale changes in ambient NO(2) during COVID-19 lockdowns
title_short Global fine-scale changes in ambient NO(2) during COVID-19 lockdowns
title_sort global fine-scale changes in ambient no(2) during covid-19 lockdowns
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8770130/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35046607
http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41586-021-04229-0
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