Changes in the Distribution of Air Pollutants (Carbon Monoxide) during the Control of the COVID-19 Pandemic in Jakarta, Surabaya, and Yogyakarta, Indonesia

ABSTRACT

The condition of the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic in 2020 characterizing DKI Jakarta, Surabaya, and Yogyakarta Provinces which have a high population density in 2019, necessitates implementing Large-Scale Social Restrictions (LSSR) to control or break the chain of the spread of COVID-19. The LSSR policy that limits community activities, be it business activities, transportation, and the industrial sector, will impact social activities and the environment due to the reduced intensity of community activities. Therefore, this study aimed to determine changes in the carbon monoxide (CO) levels in Jakarta, Surabaya and Yogyakarta during the prepandemic and during the pandemic. The method used is the tropospheric CO concentration extracted from the Sentinel-5P satellite data. The CO data were retrieved and calculated using Google Earth Engine. The COVID-19 pandemic reduced CO level by 19.7%, 14.9%, and 21%, respectively. The paired t-test shows no significant difference from before the COVID-19 pandemic, with a significance of 0.05. The highest pre-pandemic average and total CO concentration levels were 0.042 and 1.0198 mol/m2 in Yogyakarta, respectively, whereas the lowest during the pandemic were 0.02845 and 0.6828 mol/m2 in Surabaya. Overall, the three cities have a weak relationship between CO level and precipitation as well as temperatures and CO level © 2023, Journal of Ecological Engineering.All Rights Reserved.