Analysis of Changes in Air Quality in Major Cities Indonesia During COVID 19 Using Remote Sensing Data

Abstract

The COVID 19 outbreak has brought many changes to the order of human life. One is affected that life in an urban area. The metropolitan area that is usually crowded with human activity changes drastically to the empty urban. This phenomenon happened because many cities apply the lockdown policy to reduce the spread of COVID-19. This lockdown policy reduces the activity of transportation and industry, causing changes in air quality in the urban area. This study aims to see how much the impact of lockdown policy on air quality in 4 major cities in Indonesia, which is: Jakarta, Medan, Balikpapan, and Makasar. The method that used in this research is using Remote Sensing data by extracting Sentinel Satellite Image data, which produces air quality data, namely data NO2 levels in the air, then comparing the distribution of NO2 in the air between the year 2019 and 2020, and comparing data NO2 concentration in each month in 2020. Form the result of the spatial analysis of Sentinel Image Satellite data, during the lockdown policy in the year 2020 was implemented, the NO2 level in Jakarta significantly changed positively, the NO2 levels in the air decreased compared to the year 2019. For cities outside Jakarta, there has been a decrease in NO2, but the change that occurred is not significant. From this research, it can be seen that the lockdown policy during COVID-19 has improved the air quality in major cities in Indonesia.