Year-round changes in tropospheric nitrogen dioxide caused by COVID-19 in China using satellite observation.
J Environ Sci (China)
; 132: 162-168, 2023 Oct.
Article
in English
| MEDLINE | ID: covidwho-2242923
ABSTRACT
The lockdown policy deals a severe blow to the economy and greatly reduces the nitrogen oxides (NOx) emission in China when the coronavirus 2019 spreads widely in early 2020. Here we use satellite observations from Tropospheric Monitoring Instrument to study the year-round variation of the nitrogen dioxide (NO2) tropospheric vertical column density (TVCD) in 2020. The NO2 TVCD reveals a sharp drop, followed by small fluctuations and then a strong rebound when compared to 2019. By the end of 2020, the annual average NO2 TVCD declines by only 3.4% in China mainland, much less than the reduction of 24.1% in the lockdown period. On the basis of quantitative analysis, we find the rebound of NO2 TVCD is mainly caused by the rapid recovery of economy especially in the fourth quarter, when contribution of industry and power plant on NO2 TVCD continues to rise. This revenge bounce of NO2 indicates the emission reduction of NOx in lockdown period is basically offset by the recovery of economy, revealing the fact that China's economic development and NOx emissions are still not decoupled. More efforts are still required to stimulate low-pollution development.
Keywords
Full text:
Available
Collection:
International databases
Database:
MEDLINE
Main subject:
Air Pollutants
/
Air Pollution
/
COVID-19
Type of study:
Observational study
/
Prognostic study
Limits:
Humans
Country/Region as subject:
Asia
Language:
English
Journal:
J Environ Sci (China)
Journal subject:
Environmental Health
Year:
2023
Document Type:
Article
Affiliation country:
J.jes.2022.01.013
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