Effect of COVID-19 travel restrictions on Phoenix air quality after accounting for boundary layer variations
Due to the global response to the COVID-19 pandemic, there have been a variety of policy responses that have produced a range of expected and unexpected effects on society and our surrounding environment. One widely reported result of the pandemic response is that travel restrictions have resulted i...
| Main Authors: | , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Elsevier
2021-04-01
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| Series: | Atmospheric Environment: X |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2590162121000058 |
| _version_ | 1819068165095686144 |
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| author | Jason A. Miech Pierre Herckes Matthew P. Fraser |
| author_facet | Jason A. Miech Pierre Herckes Matthew P. Fraser |
| author_sort | Jason A. Miech |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Due to the global response to the COVID-19 pandemic, there have been a variety of policy responses that have produced a range of expected and unexpected effects on society and our surrounding environment. One widely reported result of the pandemic response is that travel restrictions have resulted in improvements in regional air quality. This study aims to determine the effect of COVID-19 related Stay at Home precautions on air quality in a metropolitan area. We specifically focus on CO, NO2, and PM10 in Maricopa County (Phoenix), Arizona, as these all contribute to local air quality concerns. The role of meteorological parameters on ambient concentrations for these pollutants was investigated by using the local planetary boundary layer height (PBH) to account for vertical mixing. Across all three sites studied, there was no uniform decrease in either CO or NO2, even when freeway traffic volume was down by ~35%. For PM10, there was a significant decrease of ~45% seen at all the sites for the period most directly impacted by local Stay at Home restrictions compared to the past two years. This indicates that different pollutants have fundamentally different behavior in the local environment and suggests that these pollutants originate from different sources. |
| first_indexed | 2024-12-21T16:29:48Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-6c7522c98f7345608031e75639fce3af |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2590-1621 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-12-21T16:29:48Z |
| publishDate | 2021-04-01 |
| publisher | Elsevier |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Atmospheric Environment: X |
| spelling | doaj.art-6c7522c98f7345608031e75639fce3af2022-12-21T18:57:22ZengElsevierAtmospheric Environment: X2590-16212021-04-0110100105Effect of COVID-19 travel restrictions on Phoenix air quality after accounting for boundary layer variationsJason A. Miech0Pierre Herckes1Matthew P. Fraser2School of Molecular Sciences, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ, 85287, USASchool of Molecular Sciences, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ, 85287, USASchool of Sustainable Engineering and the Built Environment, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ, 85287, USA; Corresponding author.Due to the global response to the COVID-19 pandemic, there have been a variety of policy responses that have produced a range of expected and unexpected effects on society and our surrounding environment. One widely reported result of the pandemic response is that travel restrictions have resulted in improvements in regional air quality. This study aims to determine the effect of COVID-19 related Stay at Home precautions on air quality in a metropolitan area. We specifically focus on CO, NO2, and PM10 in Maricopa County (Phoenix), Arizona, as these all contribute to local air quality concerns. The role of meteorological parameters on ambient concentrations for these pollutants was investigated by using the local planetary boundary layer height (PBH) to account for vertical mixing. Across all three sites studied, there was no uniform decrease in either CO or NO2, even when freeway traffic volume was down by ~35%. For PM10, there was a significant decrease of ~45% seen at all the sites for the period most directly impacted by local Stay at Home restrictions compared to the past two years. This indicates that different pollutants have fundamentally different behavior in the local environment and suggests that these pollutants originate from different sources.http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2590162121000058Air qualityCOVID-19 travel restrictionsVehicle emissionsPlanetary boundary layer |
| spellingShingle | Jason A. Miech Pierre Herckes Matthew P. Fraser Effect of COVID-19 travel restrictions on Phoenix air quality after accounting for boundary layer variations Atmospheric Environment: X Air quality COVID-19 travel restrictions Vehicle emissions Planetary boundary layer |
| title | Effect of COVID-19 travel restrictions on Phoenix air quality after accounting for boundary layer variations |
| title_full | Effect of COVID-19 travel restrictions on Phoenix air quality after accounting for boundary layer variations |
| title_fullStr | Effect of COVID-19 travel restrictions on Phoenix air quality after accounting for boundary layer variations |
| title_full_unstemmed | Effect of COVID-19 travel restrictions on Phoenix air quality after accounting for boundary layer variations |
| title_short | Effect of COVID-19 travel restrictions on Phoenix air quality after accounting for boundary layer variations |
| title_sort | effect of covid 19 travel restrictions on phoenix air quality after accounting for boundary layer variations |
| topic | Air quality COVID-19 travel restrictions Vehicle emissions Planetary boundary layer |
| url | http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2590162121000058 |
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