Change of CO Concentration Due to the COVID-19 Lockdown in China Observed by Surface and Satellite Observations

Minqiang Zhou,Martine De Mazière,Bavo Langerock,Bart Dils,Jingyi Jiang,Mahesh Sha

doi:10.3390/rs13061129

Abstract

The nationwide lockdown due to the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 reduced industrial and human activities in China. In this study, we investigate atmospheric carbon monoxide (CO) concentration changes during the lockdown from observations at the surface and from two satellites (TROPOspheric Monitoring Instrument (TROPOMI) and Infrared Atmospheric Sounding Interferometer (IASI)). It is found that the average CO surface concentration in 2020 was close to that in 2019 before the lockdown, and became 18.7% lower as compared to 2019 during the lockdown. The spatial variation of the change in the CO surface concentration is high, with an 8–27% reduction observed for Beijing, Shanghai, Chengdu, Zhengzhou, and Guangzhou, and almost no change in Wuhan. The TROPOMI and IASI satellite observations show that the CO columns decreased by 2–13% during the lockdown in most regions in China. However in South China, there was an 8.8% increase in the CO columns observed by TROPOMI and a 36.7% increase observed by IASI, which is contrary to the 23% decrease in the surface CO concentration. The enhancement of the CO column in South China is strongly affected by the fire emissions transported from Southeast Asia. This study provides an insight into the impact of COVID-19 on CO concentrations both at the surface and in the columns in China, and it can be extended to evaluate other areas using the same approach.

Highlights

The COVID-19 worldwide pandemic has caused millions of deaths, reported by theWorld Health Organization (WHO) coronavirus disease dashboard
The first COVID19 patient was detected in Wuhan, Hubei Province, China, in December 2019, and the disease quickly spread to the whole country before the Chinese New Year 2020 [1]
The mean difference during after the Chinese New Year (ACNY) indicates that there was an 18.7% reduction in carbon monoxide (CO) surface concentration due to the COVID-19 lockdown

Summary

Introduction

The COVID-19 worldwide pandemic has caused millions of deaths, reported by the. World Health Organization (WHO) coronavirus disease dashboard. The first COVID19 patient was detected in Wuhan, Hubei Province, China, in December 2019, and the disease quickly spread to the whole country before the Chinese New Year 2020 [1]. To prevent the further spread of the outbreak, the Chinese government carried out a nationwide lockdown starting on 23 January 2020 in Wuhan and extending rapidly The lockdown outside of Hubei province was eased at the beginning of March, while it continued to 25 March for Hubei province and to 8 April for Wuhan [3]. The strict measures related to COVID-19 had a large impact on economic activities, including energy production, industrial activities, and transportation [4,5].

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Conclusion