Impacts of Nationwide Lockdown due to COVID 19 Outbreak on Air Quality in Bangladesh

In Bangladesh, a nationwide lockdown was imposed on 26th March 2020. Due to restricted emissions, it was hypothesized that the air quality has been improved during lockdown throughout the country. The study is intended to assess the impact of nationwide lockdown measures on air quality in Bangladesh. Satellite data from different sources were analyzed for four different air pollutants (NO2, SO2, CO, and O3 to assess the changes in the atmospheric concentrations of pollutants across the country. In this study, the concentrations of NO2, SO2, CO, and O3 from 1st February to 30th May of the year 2019 and 2020 were analyzed. The average SO2 and NO2 concentrations were decreased by 43% and 40% respectively, while tropospheric O3 were found to be increased with a maximum of 7%. This analysis reveals that NO2 concentrations are highly correlated with the regional COVID-19 cases (r=0.74) in the country.