AIR POLLUTION TRENDS IN THE PORT CITY OF VISAKHAPATNAM DURING COVID-19 OUTBREAKKavitha Chandu and Madhavaprasad DasariAbstract India is one of the affected countries by the end of January 2020 due to Covid-19. The Indian government imposed a national wide complete lockdown from 24th March to 3rd May because of the virusâs contagious nature. All activities, like mass transportation and industrial activities, were prohibited. As a result, air pollution levels drastically reduced across the country. The present work focused on the degree of reduction in air pollutant parameters PM2.5, PM10, SO2, NO2, CO, O3 at the port city of Visakhapatnam located on the east coast of India during the pre and lockdown period (3rd March to 14th April), 2020. The data during the lockdown period (24th March to 3rd May) is also compared with last year, 2019 data for the same time. During the pre and lockdown period, the reduction in PM2.5 and PM10 is about -20.74% and -12.7 %, respectively. Among other pollutants, CO fell drastically by -83.36 %, and O3 increased by 27.74% during the lockdown phase compared to pre lockdown. Compared to last year, at the same time, PM2.5 and PM10 witnessed a decline of about -34.2% and -35.9%. CO, NO2, and SO2 seen a drop of about -82.9%, -12.39%, and -15.10%, respectively, and O3 increased by 65.45%. |