Urban air quality in Xinjiang and snow chemistry of Urumqi Glacier No. 1 during COVID-19’s restrictions

The unprecedented COVID-19 outbreak impacted the world in many aspects. Air pollutants were largely reduced in cities worldwide in 2020. Using samples from two snow pits dug separately in 2019 and 2020 in Urumqi Glacier No. 1 (UG1) in the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region (Xinjiang), China, we measured water-stable isotopes, soluble ions, and black and organic carbon (BC and OC). Both carbon types show no significant variations in the snow-pit profiles dated from 2018 through 2020. The deposition of anthropogenically induced soluble ions (K(+), Cl(−), SO(4)(2−), and NO(3)(−)) in the snow decreased to 20–40% of their respective concentrations between 2019 and 2020; however, they increased 2- to fourfold from 2018 to 2019. We studied the daily concentrations of SO(2) (2019–2020), NO(2) (2015–2020), CO (2019–2020), and PM(2.5) (2019–2020) measured in the sixteen major cities and towns across Xinjiang. The variabilities in these air pollutants were supposed to illustrate the air quality in the urban area and represent the change in the source area. The NO(2) decreased in response to mobility restrictions imposed by local governments, while SO(2), CO, and PM(2.5) did not consistently correspond. This difference indicates that the restriction measures primarily affected traffic. The increases in chemical species in the snow from 2018 to 2019 and the subsequent decreases from 2019 to 2020 were consistent with the variations in SO(2) and NO(2) measured in urban air and estimated by MERRA-2 model. Therefore, the pandemic could possibly have an impact on snow chemistry of the Tien-Shan glaciers via reduced traffic and industrial intensity; more evidence would be obtained from ice cores, tree rings, and other archives in the future.