Natural processes dominate the pollution levels during COVID-19 lockdown over India

Abstract The lockdown measures that were taken to combat the COVID-19 pandemic minimized anthropogenic activities and created natural laboratory conditions for studying air quality. Both observations and WRF-Chem simulations show a 20–50% reduction (compared to pre-lockdown and same period of previo...

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Autores principales:	Venkat Ratnam Madineni, Hari Prasad Dasari, Ramakrishna Karumuri, Yesubabu Viswanadhapalli, Prasad Perumal, Ibrahim Hoteit
Formato:	article
Lenguaje:	EN
Publicado:	Nature Portfolio 2021
Materias:	Medicine R Science Q
Acceso en línea:	https://doaj.org/article/3e1493ce75b44296bdfc8ddfc4f3f1fe
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spelling	oai:doaj.org-article:3e1493ce75b44296bdfc8ddfc4f3f1fe2021-12-02T16:26:29ZNatural processes dominate the pollution levels during COVID-19 lockdown over India10.1038/s41598-021-94373-42045-2322https://doaj.org/article/3e1493ce75b44296bdfc8ddfc4f3f1fe2021-07-01T00:00:00Zhttps://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-94373-4https://doaj.org/toc/2045-2322Abstract The lockdown measures that were taken to combat the COVID-19 pandemic minimized anthropogenic activities and created natural laboratory conditions for studying air quality. Both observations and WRF-Chem simulations show a 20–50% reduction (compared to pre-lockdown and same period of previous year) in the concentrations of most aerosols and trace gases over Northwest India, the Indo Gangetic Plain (IGP), and the Northeast Indian regions. It is shown that this was mainly due to a 70–80% increase in the height of the boundary layer and the low emissions during lockdown. However, a 60–70% increase in the pollutants levels was observed over Central and South India including the Arabian sea and Bay of Bengal during this period, which is attributed to natural processes. Elevated (dust) aerosol layers are transported from the Middle East and Africa via long-range transport, and a decrease in the wind speed (20–40%) caused these aerosols to stagnate, enhancing the aerosol levels over Central and Southern India. A 40–60% increase in relative humidity further amplified aerosol concentrations. The results of this study suggest that besides emissions, natural processes including background meteorology and dynamics, play a crucial role in the pollution concentrations over the Indian sub-continent.Venkat Ratnam MadineniHari Prasad DasariRamakrishna KarumuriYesubabu ViswanadhapalliPrasad PerumalIbrahim HoteitNature PortfolioarticleMedicineRScienceQENScientific Reports, Vol 11, Iss 1, Pp 1-14 (2021)
institution	DOAJ
collection	DOAJ
language	EN
topic	Medicine R Science Q
spellingShingle	Medicine R Science Q Venkat Ratnam Madineni Hari Prasad Dasari Ramakrishna Karumuri Yesubabu Viswanadhapalli Prasad Perumal Ibrahim Hoteit Natural processes dominate the pollution levels during COVID-19 lockdown over India
description	Abstract The lockdown measures that were taken to combat the COVID-19 pandemic minimized anthropogenic activities and created natural laboratory conditions for studying air quality. Both observations and WRF-Chem simulations show a 20–50% reduction (compared to pre-lockdown and same period of previous year) in the concentrations of most aerosols and trace gases over Northwest India, the Indo Gangetic Plain (IGP), and the Northeast Indian regions. It is shown that this was mainly due to a 70–80% increase in the height of the boundary layer and the low emissions during lockdown. However, a 60–70% increase in the pollutants levels was observed over Central and South India including the Arabian sea and Bay of Bengal during this period, which is attributed to natural processes. Elevated (dust) aerosol layers are transported from the Middle East and Africa via long-range transport, and a decrease in the wind speed (20–40%) caused these aerosols to stagnate, enhancing the aerosol levels over Central and Southern India. A 40–60% increase in relative humidity further amplified aerosol concentrations. The results of this study suggest that besides emissions, natural processes including background meteorology and dynamics, play a crucial role in the pollution concentrations over the Indian sub-continent.
format	article
author	Venkat Ratnam Madineni Hari Prasad Dasari Ramakrishna Karumuri Yesubabu Viswanadhapalli Prasad Perumal Ibrahim Hoteit
author_facet	Venkat Ratnam Madineni Hari Prasad Dasari Ramakrishna Karumuri Yesubabu Viswanadhapalli Prasad Perumal Ibrahim Hoteit
author_sort	Venkat Ratnam Madineni
title	Natural processes dominate the pollution levels during COVID-19 lockdown over India
title_short	Natural processes dominate the pollution levels during COVID-19 lockdown over India
title_full	Natural processes dominate the pollution levels during COVID-19 lockdown over India
title_fullStr	Natural processes dominate the pollution levels during COVID-19 lockdown over India
title_full_unstemmed	Natural processes dominate the pollution levels during COVID-19 lockdown over India
title_sort	natural processes dominate the pollution levels during covid-19 lockdown over india
publisher	Nature Portfolio
publishDate	2021
url	https://doaj.org/article/3e1493ce75b44296bdfc8ddfc4f3f1fe
work_keys_str_mv	AT venkatratnammadineni naturalprocessesdominatethepollutionlevelsduringcovid19lockdownoverindia AT hariprasaddasari naturalprocessesdominatethepollutionlevelsduringcovid19lockdownoverindia AT ramakrishnakarumuri naturalprocessesdominatethepollutionlevelsduringcovid19lockdownoverindia AT yesubabuviswanadhapalli naturalprocessesdominatethepollutionlevelsduringcovid19lockdownoverindia AT prasadperumal naturalprocessesdominatethepollutionlevelsduringcovid19lockdownoverindia AT ibrahimhoteit naturalprocessesdominatethepollutionlevelsduringcovid19lockdownoverindia
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Natural processes dominate the pollution levels during COVID-19 lockdown over India

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