Dataset Information

Effect of lockdown due to SARS COVID-19 on aerosol optical depth (AOD) over urban and mining regions in India.

ABSTRACT: The Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome-COronaVIrus Diseases 2019 (SARS-COVID-19) pandemic has posed a serious threat to human health (death) and substantial economic losses across the globe. It was however presumed that extreme preventive measures of entire lockdown in India might have reduced the air pollution level and therefore decreased the aerosol optical depth (AOD). The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS)-based Multi-angle Implementation of Atmospheric Correction (MAIAC) daily AOD product was deployed to investigate the change in AOD level during lockdown phases across the Indian Territory as compared to the long-term mean AOD level (2000-2019) of the same periods. The key findings of the study revealed that AOD level over the Indian Territory is greatly reduced (~45%) during the lockdown periods as compared to the long-term mean AOD level (2000-2019). Furthermore, a noteworthy negative AOD anomaly (~6 to 37%) was observed across the four metropolitan cities in India during the entire lockdown period (25th March to 15th May 2020). However, coal mining regions of the various coalfields in India showed a positive anomaly (~+11 to 40%) during the lockdown periods due to ongoing mining operations. In a nutshell, the study results indicated a huge drop in the AOD level over Indian Territory during lockdown periods. It is expected that the pandemic can influence some policy decisions to propose air pollution control methods. Lockdown events possibly may play a crucial role as a potential solution for air pollution abatement in the future. It may not be uncommon in future when the governments may implement deliberately selective lockdowns at pollution hotspots to control the pollution level.

SUBMITTER: Ranjan AK

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7368898 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

ACCESS DATA

Publications

Effect of lockdown due to SARS COVID-19 on aerosol optical depth (AOD) over urban and mining regions in India.

Ranjan Avinash Kumar AK Patra A K AK Gorai A K AK

The Science of the total environment 20200719

The Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome-COronaVIrus Diseases 2019 (SARS-COVID-19) pandemic has posed a serious threat to human health (death) and substantial economic losses across the globe. It was however presumed that extreme preventive measures of entire lockdown in India might have reduced the air pollution level and therefore decreased the aerosol optical depth (AOD). The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS)-based Multi-angle Implementation of Atmospheric Correction (MAIAC) ...[more]

PMID: 32711073

Similar Datasets

Project description:Mining is an essential industry that will provide key materials needed for India infrastructure development. Mining is one of the core sectors and growth driver of Indian economy. Minerals and ores provide basic raw materials to many important industries like power generation (thermal), iron and steel, cement, petroleum and natural gas, petrochemicals, fertilizers, precious and semi-precious metals/stones for jewellery, electrical and electronics equipment, glass, ceramics, etc. The mining sector in India was poised for robust growth in financial year 2020–2021, on the back of rising demand from end-use sectors and fresh investments announced by the mining companies. However, the spread of COVID-19, right at the beginning of the financial year, has led to disruptions across industries. There is a significant scope for new mining capacities in iron ore, bauxite, coal and other minerals and considerable opportunities for future discoveries of sub-surface deposits. Infrastructure projects continue to provide lucrative business opportunities for steel, zinc and aluminium producers. Iron and steel make up a core component for the real estate sector. Demand for these metals is set to continue given strong growth expectations for the residential and commercial building industry. India’s mining sector expected to show positive growth in 2021 compared to 2020. As different arms of the government work with stakeholders to bring the economy on the growth path, it is important for the policymakers of mining to continue making such changes to the policies, which can ramp up the contribution of the sector to GDP. In the present paper, an overview of impact of lockdown on the mining industry in India is discussed with special reference to production scenario of minerals, employment, export-import scenario of ores and minerals and other developments during the period. Supplementary Information The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s13563-021-00263-6.

Project description:Satellite-based PM(2.5) monitoring has the potential to complement ground PM(2.5) monitoring networks, especially for regions with sparsely distributed monitors. Satellite remote sensing provides data on aerosol optical depth (AOD), which reflects particle abundance in the atmospheric column. Thus AOD has been used in statistical models to predict ground-level PM(2.5) concentrations. However, previous studies have shown that AOD may not be a strong predictor of PM(2.5) ground levels. Another shortcoming of remote sensing is the large number of non-retrieval days (i.e., days without satellite data available) due to clouds and snow- and ice-cover. In this paper we propose statistical approaches to overcome these two shortcomings, thereby making satellite imagery a viable method to estimate PM(2.5) concentrations. First, we render AOD a robust predictor of PM(2.5) mass concentration by introducing an AOD daily calibration approach through the use of mixed effects model. Second, we develop models that combine AOD and ground monitoring data to predict PM(2.5) concentrations during non-retrieval days. A key feature of this approach is that we develop these prediction models separately for groups of days defined by the observed amount of spatial heterogeneity in concentrations across the study region. Subsequently, these methodologies were applied to examine the spatial and temporal patterns of daily PM(2.5) concentrations for both retrieval days (i.e., days with satellite data available) and non-retrieval days in the New England region of the United States during the period 2000-2008. Overall, for the years 2000-2008, our statistical models predicted surface PM(2.5) concentrations with reasonably high R(2) (0.83) and low percent mean relative error (3.5%). Also the spatial distribution of the estimated PM(2.5) levels in the study domain clearly exhibited densely populated and high traffic areas. The method we have developed demonstrates that remote sensing can have a tremendous impact on the fields of environmental monitoring and human exposure assessment.

Dataset Information

Effect of lockdown due to SARS COVID-19 on aerosol optical depth (AOD) over urban and mining regions in India.

Publications

Effect of lockdown due to SARS COVID-19 on aerosol optical depth (AOD) over urban and mining regions in India.

Similar Datasets

OmicsDI is part of the ELIXIR infrastructure

Tweets