The Atmospheric Environment Effects of the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Metrological Study.

Since the COVID-19 outbreak, the scientific community has been trying to clarify various problems, such as the mechanism of virus transmission, environmental impact, and socio-economic impact. The spread of COVID-19 in the atmospheric environment is variable and uncertain, potentially resulting in differences in air pollution. Many scholars are striving to explore the relationship between air quality, meteorological indicators, and COVID-19 to understand the interaction between COVID-19 and the atmospheric environment. In this study, we try to summarize COVID-19 studies related to the atmospheric environment by reviewing publications since January 2020. We used metrological methods to analyze many publications in Web of Science Core Collection. To clarify the current situation, hotspots, and development trends in the field. According to the study, COVID-19 research based on the atmospheric environment has attracted global attention. COVID-19 and air quality, meteorological factors affecting the spread of COVID-19, air pollution, and human health are the main topics. Environmental variables have a certain impact on the spread of SARS-CoV-2, and the prevalence of COVID-19 has improved the atmospheric environment to some extent. The findings of this study will aid scholars to understand the current situation in this field and provide guidance for future research.

Influence of atmospheric environment on SARS-CoV-2 transmission: A review

The novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), has become a public health emergency of international concern. Exposure to droplets produced in the coughs and sneezes of infected individuals has been perceived as the dominant transmission mode for COVID-19. However, increasingly more evidence supports claims of COVID-19 having airborne transmission. An in-depth understanding of the transmission pathways and influencing factors of SARS-CoV-2 is of great significance for formulating more effective intervention strategies. A large number of epidemiological investigations into the influence of atmospheric environmental conditions on virus transmission have been conducted. In this paper, we review current understandings of the association between COVID-19 and atmospheric environmental conditions. We first summarize the epidemiological investigations on the impact of atmospheric environmental factors (including solar radiation, temperature and humidity, wind speed, particulate matters, and gaseous pollutants) on the spread of COVID-19, and 164 epidemiological investigations are included, in which air temperature and relative humidity received the greatest attention. However, the impact of these factors on the prevalence of COVID-19 remains largely uncertain. 56% and 41% of investigations of temperature and humidity, respectively, show that cold and dry weather promotes COVID-19 transmission, while some studies come to the opposite conclusion, and still others do not show a significant relationship between them. Investigations of solar radiation are limited, but have come to the consistent conclusion that weak solar radiation is linked to increased severity of COVID-19 infection. Investigation of the impact of air pollution mainly focuses on particulate matters, and more than 70% of investigations indicate that PM2.5 likely contributes to the spread of COVID-19. Similarly, 62%, 51%, and 31% of investigations of NOx, O3, and SO2, respectively, indicate that the exposure to severe pollution can aggravate COVID-19 transmission. Therefore, the available findings reveal the complexity of the impact of atmospheric environmental conditions on the spread of COVID-19. We further discuss their mechanisms from three perspectives: (1) Atmospheric environmental conditions influence the generation of virus-laden aerosols and the occurrence of SARS-CoV-2 in the atmosphere. Relative humidity can affect the evaporation process of water on virus-laden aerosol, and thus affect its atmospheric life and probability of being inhaled by human body. (2) Atmospheric environmental conditions directly affect the stability of infection activity of SARS-CoV-2. Generally, high temperature, medium relative humidity, and intense solar radiation promote the inactivation of SARS-CoV-2. (3) Atmospheric environmental conditions indirectly affect the infection ability of SARS-CoV-2 by changing the defense ability of host cells. Air pollutants, especially PM2.5, can affect human susceptibility to the virus by increasing the expression of the SARS-CoV-2 receptor (angiotensin converting enzyme 2) in host cells. Meanwhile, meteorological conditions and air pollution can lead to respiratory system and other diseases in the human body, thus reducing human immunity and increasing the risk of virus infection, as well as the numbers of severely infected and fatal cases. All three mechanisms may contribute to the prevalence of COVID-19, but the dominant mechanism remains unclear. Finally, future directions of in-depth studies regarding the association between the epidemic and atmospheric conditions are proposed. © 2022 Chinese Academy of Sciences. All rights reserved.

VARIATION OF SATELLITE-DERIVED AEROSOL OPTICAL DEPTH OVER CHINA BEFORE AND AFTER THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC

Due to the Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19) pandemic, the human activities in China and even in the world were reduced in 2020, which also caused the variation of the atmospheric environment, especially atmospheric aerosol emissions. In this paper, the MODIS level-3 gridded atmosphere monthly global joint product in 2019 and 2020 were collected and processed. After preliminary analysis, we found that MODIS annual aerosol optical depth (AOD) over China in 2020 is generally lower than in 2019. In some regions such as Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei and Yangtze River Delta, AOD values dropped the most in February. However, in some months and regions, AOD in 2020 is even higher than in 2019. More studies are still ongoing. © 2021 IEEE.

COVID-19 lockdown: animal life, ecosystem and atmospheric environment.

The outbreak of COVID-19 leads to emergence of the global pandemic, but there is no specific vaccine recommended for COVID-19. More than 216 countries are struggling against the transmission of the disease, recovery and motility. Till date more than 0.948 million deaths out of 30.369 million confirmed cases are reported by WHO. Most of the nations adopted partial or complete 'lockdown' and imposed 'social distancing' to control the rapid transmission of COVID-19 and its consequence. Though global economic growth declined due to nationwide lockdown, there are certain positive impacts on environment. This review article has discussed the effects of nationwide lockdown aiming to community transmission COVID-19 on animal life behaviour and atmospheric environment in different aspects. In the lockdown period, the levels of NO2 and carbon emission remarkably decrease in atmosphere due to restricted consumption of fossil fuel by industries, thermal power stations and air transportations. The concentration of NO2 dropped by 45-54% in the atmosphere of most populated cities in Europe. The intensities of particulate matters PM2.5 and PM10 decreased by 43% and 31% respectively, at lower atmosphere indicating improvement in air qualities in different parts of world caused by less traffic and construction activities. SPM reduced up to 15.9%, showing improvement in surface water quality. New deserted bank has developed due to less river activities in this period. Noise pollution remarkably dropped below 60 db even in crowded cities. Thus, the atmospheric environment has resumed some extent in all respect by means of such global-wide lockdown aiming to control COVID-19 pandemic. The behavioural changes of wild animals, birds, butterfly, pets and street animals that reflected on ecosystem of their relative region indicate the non-interference of human activities on lives of natural creatures during lockdown period. There is certain correlation between atmospheric change with the behavioural changes of natural creature during lockdown period. The objective of this study is to focus the critical analysis of the effect of human activities on atmospheric environment for sustainable ecosystem in long term. Significantly, there is ample scope of research on sustainable development of atmospheric environment and ecosystem of creature in absence of human being.