Year-round changes in tropospheric nitrogen dioxide caused by COVID-19 in China using satellite observation

IF 6.9 Q1 Environmental Science

Journal of environmental sciences Pub Date : 2023-10-01 DOI:10.1016/j.jes.2022.01.013

Zhenyu Luo , Hailian Xu , Zhining Zhang, Songxin Zheng, Huan Liu

{"title":"Year-round changes in tropospheric nitrogen dioxide caused by COVID-19 in China using satellite observation","authors":"Zhenyu Luo , Hailian Xu , Zhining Zhang, Songxin Zheng, Huan Liu","doi":"10.1016/j.jes.2022.01.013","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<div>The lockdown policy deals a severe blow to the economy and greatly reduces the nitrogen oxides (NOx) emission in China when the coronavirus 2019 spreads widely in early 2020. Here we use satellite observations from Tropospheric Monitoring Instrument to study the year-round variation of the nitrogen dioxide (NO2) tropospheric vertical column density (TVCD) in 2020. The NO2 TVCD reveals a sharp drop, followed by small fluctuations and then a strong rebound when compared to 2019. By the end of 2020, the annual average NO2 TVCD declines by only 3.4% in China mainland, much less than the reduction of 24.1% in the lockdown period. On the basis of quantitative analysis, we find the rebound of NO2 TVCD is mainly caused by the rapid recovery of economy especially in the fourth quarter, when contribution of industry and power plant on NO2 TVCD continues to rise. This revenge bounce of NO2 indicates the emission reduction of NOx in lockdown period is basically offset by the recovery of economy, revealing the fact that China's economic development and NOx emissions are still not decoupled. More efforts are still required to stimulate low-pollution development.</div>","PeriodicalId":15774,"journal":{"name":"Journal of environmental sciences","volume":"132 ","pages":"Pages 162-168"},"PeriodicalIF":6.9000,"publicationDate":"2023-10-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8761557/pdf/","citationCount":"4","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Journal of environmental sciences","FirstCategoryId":"1089","ListUrlMain":"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1001074222000122","RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":null,"ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q1","JCRName":"Environmental Science","Score":null,"Total":0}

引用次数: 4

Abstract

The lockdown policy deals a severe blow to the economy and greatly reduces the nitrogen oxides (NOx) emission in China when the coronavirus 2019 spreads widely in early 2020. Here we use satellite observations from Tropospheric Monitoring Instrument to study the year-round variation of the nitrogen dioxide (NO₂) tropospheric vertical column density (TVCD) in 2020. The NO₂ TVCD reveals a sharp drop, followed by small fluctuations and then a strong rebound when compared to 2019. By the end of 2020, the annual average NO₂ TVCD declines by only 3.4% in China mainland, much less than the reduction of 24.1% in the lockdown period. On the basis of quantitative analysis, we find the rebound of NO₂ TVCD is mainly caused by the rapid recovery of economy especially in the fourth quarter, when contribution of industry and power plant on NO₂ TVCD continues to rise. This revenge bounce of NO₂ indicates the emission reduction of NOx in lockdown period is basically offset by the recovery of economy, revealing the fact that China's economic development and NOx emissions are still not decoupled. More efforts are still required to stimulate low-pollution development.

Abstract Image

查看原文本刊更多论文

基于卫星观测的中国2019冠状病毒病疫情对流层二氧化氮全年变化

当2019冠状病毒在2020年初广泛传播时，封锁政策对经济造成了严重打击，并大大减少了中国的氮氧化物（NOx）排放。在这里，我们使用对流层监测仪器的卫星观测来研究2020年二氧化氮（NO2）对流层垂直柱密度（TVCD）的全年变化。NO2 TVCD显示，与2019年相比，NO2 TVCD急剧下降，随后出现小幅波动，然后出现强劲反弹。截至2020年底，中国大陆NO2 TVCD的年平均降幅仅为3.4%，远低于封锁期间24.1%的降幅。在定量分析的基础上，我们发现NO2 TVCD的反弹主要是由于经济的快速复苏，特别是在第四季度，工业和发电厂对NO2 TVCD贡献持续上升。NO2的这种报复性反弹表明，封锁期间NOx的减排基本上被经济的复苏所抵消，揭示了中国经济发展与NOx排放仍未脱钩的事实。刺激低污染发展仍需付出更多努力。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

求助全文

约1分钟内获得全文求助全文

来源期刊

Journal of environmental sciences Environmental Science (General)

CiteScore

12.80

自引率

0.00%

发文量

审稿时长

17 days

期刊介绍： Journal of Environmental Sciences is an international peer-reviewed journal established in 1989. It is sponsored by the Research Center for Eco-Environmental Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, and it is jointly published by Elsevier and Science Press. It aims to foster interdisciplinary communication and promote understanding of significant environmental issues. The journal seeks to publish significant and novel research on the fate and behaviour of emerging contaminants, human impact on the environment, human exposure to environmental contaminants and their health effects, and environmental remediation and management. Original research articles, critical reviews, highlights, and perspectives of high quality are published both in print and online.