Air Pollution

Reducing emissions is one of the most effective ways to mitigate air pollution. We leveraged the reduced human activities during the COVID-19 shutdown to evaluate (1) how well the satellite can capture changes in surface emissions, and (2) the impact of emission regulation on reducing air pollution. We also used a sensitivity analysis model (GEOS-Chem adjoint) to investigate effective ways to reduce ozone pollution in Yuma, Arizona, through emission control and the premature death associated with air pollution in Washington, DC. The results imply how emission controls affect air pollutant concentrations and their impacts on human health.

Related Publications

  • Qu, Z., D. J. Jacob, R. F.  Silvern, V. Shah, P. C. Campbell, L. C. Valin, L. T. Murray, US COVID-19 shutdown shows the importance of background NO2 in inferring nitrogen oxide (NOx) emissions from satellite NO2 observations, Geophys. Res. Lett., doi:10.1029/2021GL092783, 2021.

 

  • Campbell, P. C., D. Tong, Y. Tang, B. Baker, P. Lee, R. Saylor, A. Stein, S. Ma, L. Lamsal, and Z. Qu, Impacts of the COVID-19 economic slowdown on ozone pollution in the U.S., Atmos. Environ., 264, 118713, doi:10.1016/j.atmosenv.2021.118713, 2021.

 

  • Balamurugan V., J. Chen, Z. Qu, X. Bi, J. Gensheimer, A. Shekhar, S. Bhattacharjee, and F. N. Keutsch, Tropospheric NO2 and O3 response to COVID-19 lockdown restrictions at the national and urban scales in Germany, 126, e2021JD035440, J. Geophys. Res. – Atmos., doi:10.1029/2021JD035440, 2021.

 

  • Balamurugan V., J. Chen, Z. Qu, X. Bi, and F. N. Keutsch, Secondary PM2.5 decreases significantly less than NO2 emission reductions during COVID lockdown in Germany, Atmos. Chem. Phys., 22, 7105-7129, doi:10.5194/acp-22-7105-2022, 2022.

 

  • Qu, Z., D. Wu, D. K. Henze, Y. Li, M. Sonenberg, and F. Mao, Transboundary transport of ozone pollution to a US border region: a case study of Yuma, Pollut., 273, 116421, doi:10.1016/j.envpol.2020.116421, 2021.

 

  • Nawaz, M. O., D. K. Henze, S. Anenberg, D. Goldberg, D. Jo, B. Nault, J. Jimenez, H. Cao, C. Harkins, and Z. Qu, Impacts of sectoral, regional, species and day-specific emissions on air pollution and public health in Washington DC, Elementa, 9, 1, doi: 10.1525/elementa.2021.00043, 2021.