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Variation Of Black Carbon And Particulate Matter In Bhubaneswar During The Pre-monsoon: Possible Impact Of Meteorology And COVID-19 Lockdown


Affiliations
1 Environment and Sustainability Department, CSIR-Institute of Minerals and Materials Technology, Bhubaneswar 751 013, India
 

To combat the present COVID-19 pandemic, a coun-trywide lockdown (LD) was imposed in India from 25 March until 31 May 2020. This unique scenario brought a decline in various anthropogenic activities leading to a considerable decrease in the concentra-tion of several atmospheric pollutants. In this scenar-io, CSIR-IMMT Bhubaneswar carried out black carbon (BC), PM10 and PM2.5 analysis through optical and gravimetric measurements, respectively, during March-May 2020 followed by a comparison with pre-vious years (2017–2018) of observation. There was a reduction of ~33% in average overall BC concentra-tion along with a significant drop in PM10 (33%) (P < 0.05) and PM2.5 (~38%) (P < 0.05) during the entire LD period as compared to 2017–2018. During LD, contribution from biomass burning was enhanced by almost 3 times as compared to 2017–2018. Howev-er, the simultaneous meteorological variation during the LD period prevents clear distinction of the impact of lockdown on BC and PM.

Keywords

Black Carbon, Biomass Burning, Fossil Fuel, Lockdown, Particulate Matter.
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  • Variation Of Black Carbon And Particulate Matter In Bhubaneswar During The Pre-monsoon: Possible Impact Of Meteorology And COVID-19 Lockdown

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Authors

Jyotishree Nath
Environment and Sustainability Department, CSIR-Institute of Minerals and Materials Technology, Bhubaneswar 751 013, India
Subhasmita Panda
Environment and Sustainability Department, CSIR-Institute of Minerals and Materials Technology, Bhubaneswar 751 013, India
Satya S. Patra
Environment and Sustainability Department, CSIR-Institute of Minerals and Materials Technology, Bhubaneswar 751 013, India
Boopathy Ramasamy
Environment and Sustainability Department, CSIR-Institute of Minerals and Materials Technology, Bhubaneswar 751 013, India
Trupti Das
Environment and Sustainability Department, CSIR-Institute of Minerals and Materials Technology, Bhubaneswar 751 013, India

Abstract


To combat the present COVID-19 pandemic, a coun-trywide lockdown (LD) was imposed in India from 25 March until 31 May 2020. This unique scenario brought a decline in various anthropogenic activities leading to a considerable decrease in the concentra-tion of several atmospheric pollutants. In this scenar-io, CSIR-IMMT Bhubaneswar carried out black carbon (BC), PM10 and PM2.5 analysis through optical and gravimetric measurements, respectively, during March-May 2020 followed by a comparison with pre-vious years (2017–2018) of observation. There was a reduction of ~33% in average overall BC concentra-tion along with a significant drop in PM10 (33%) (P < 0.05) and PM2.5 (~38%) (P < 0.05) during the entire LD period as compared to 2017–2018. During LD, contribution from biomass burning was enhanced by almost 3 times as compared to 2017–2018. Howev-er, the simultaneous meteorological variation during the LD period prevents clear distinction of the impact of lockdown on BC and PM.

Keywords


Black Carbon, Biomass Burning, Fossil Fuel, Lockdown, Particulate Matter.

References





DOI: https://doi.org/10.18520/cs%2Fv120%2Fi2%2F313-321