Reductions in Pollution Associated with Decreased Fossil Fuel Use Resulting from COVID-19 Mitigation
- Visualizations by:
- Trent L. Schindler
- Written by:
- Bryan Duncan
- Scientific consulting by:
- Bryan Duncan
- View full credits
NASA's air quality group is also monitoring other air pollutants, such as sulfur dioxide (SO2). Major anthropogenic activities that emit SO2 include electricity generation, oil and gas extraction, and metal smelting. SO2 is emitted during electricity generation if the coal burned has sulfur impurities that are not removed (or not “scrubbed”) from the plant’s exhaust stacks.
For more information on what pollutants NASA satellites observe, visit the NASA Air Quality website.
Tropospheric SO2 Column, March 25-April 25 2020 Average, Indian Subcontinent, With Labels. On March 24, 2020, Prime Minister Modi ordered a nationwide stay-at-home order for India’s 1.3 billion citizens in an attempt to slow the spread of COVID-19. As a consequence, less fossil fuels are being consumed and, subsequently, there is less air pollution in India and in neighboring countries, including Pakistan, Nepal, Bangladesh, and Sri Lanka.
Credits
Please give credit for this item to:
NASA's Scientific Visualization Studio
Visualizer
- Trent L. Schindler (USRA) [Lead]
Writer
- Bryan Duncan (NASA/GSFC) [Lead]
Scientists
- Bryan Duncan (NASA/GSFC) [Lead]
- Joanna Joiner (NASA/GSFC)
- Lok Lamsal (USRA)
Technical support
- Ian Jones (ADNET)
- Laurence Schuler (ADNET)
Datasets used in this visualization
Aura (Collected with the OMI sensor)
Terra and Aqua BMNG (A.K.A. Blue Marble: Next Generation) (Collected with the MODIS sensor)
Credit: The Blue Marble data is courtesy of Reto Stockli (NASA/GSFC).
Dataset can be found at: http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/BlueMarble/
See more visualizations using this data setAura Ozone (Collected with the OMI sensor)
Note: While we identify the data sets used in these visualizations, we do not store any further details nor the data sets themselves on our site.
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