Revealing the Declining Trend of NO2and SO2Concentration in Indian Cities during Pandemic Lockdown

ABSTRACT

The highly polluted Indian cities are retained their normal state during COVID-19 pandemic lockdown. Thus, the study aims to analysis the lockdown impact on NO2 and SO2 in the selected cities. So, the lockdown relative changes (C) are calculated based on baseline and pre-lockdown, for which the ground (Central Pollution Control Board data) and satellite (Sentinel 5P data) measured NO2 and SO2 data were utilised. The study reveals that the average pollutants concentration of NO2 and SO2 is declined to below-average level and indicates that the average dropdown level of NO2 and SO2 are -45.4% and -30.2% for ground pollutants;-45.1% and -43.4% for satellite pollutants respectively. The pandemic lockdown has restricted industrial, vehicular emission, and other anthropogenic activities which resulted in a positive effect on air quality. © 2021 IEEE.