Spatiotemporal variability/stability analysis of NO₂, CO, and land surface temperature (LST) during COVID-19 lockdown in Amman city, Jordan

ABSTRACT

The massive lockdown of human socioeconomic activities and vehicle movements due to the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 has resulted in an unprecedented reduction in pollutant gases such as Nitrogen Dioxide (NO₂) and Carbon Monoxide (CO) as well as Land Surface Temperature (LST) in Amman as well as all countries around the globe. In this study, the spatial and temporal variability/stability of NO₂, CO, and LST throughout the lockdown period over Amman city have been analyzed. The NO₂ and CO column density values were acquired from Sentinel-5p while the LST data were obtained from MODIS satellite during the lockdown period from 20 March to 24 April in 2019, 2020, and 2021. The statistical analysis showed an overall reduction in NO₂ in 2020 by around 27% and 48% compared to 2019 and 2021, respectively. However, an increase of 7% in 2021 compared to 2019 was observed because almost all anthropogenic activities were allowed during the daytime. The temporal persistence showed almost constant NO₂ values in 2020 over the study area throughout the lockdown period. In addition, a slight decrease in CO (around 1%) was recorded in 2020 and 2021 compared to the same period in 2019. Restrictions on human activities resulted in an evident drop in LST in 2020 by around 13% and 18% less than the 5-year average and 2021 respectively. The study concludes that due to the restrictions imposed on industrial activities and automobile movements in Amman city, an unprecedented reduction in NO₂, CO, and LST was recorded.

KEYWORDS:

• Air quality
• COVID-19 lockdown
• spatiotemporal analysis
• NO₂
• CO
• Land Surface Temperature (LST)
• Sentinel-5p and MODIS satellites

Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank the anonymous reviewers for their constructive comments on the submitted manuscript.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Data availability statement

The TROPOMI NO₂ and CO data are publicly available at ESA Copernicus Open Access Hub (https://scihub.copernicus.eu/). The MODIS/Aqua LST data are also publicly available at NASA LP DAAC at the USGS EROS Center (https://lpdaac.usgs.gov/)

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Ali Almagbile

Ali Almagbile received the PhD degree from the University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia. He is currently an Associate Professor at the Department of Geography, Yarmouk University, Jordan. He has authored over 30 peer-reviewed articles in international journals. His research interests include geospatial information science, surveying, photogrammetry, UAV mapping, and remote sensing. He is an editorial and reviewer board member of various international journals in the field of remote sensing and spatial information science.

Khaled Hazaymeh

Khaled Hazaymeh received the PhD degree from the University of Calgary, Canada. He is currently an Associate Professor at the Department of Geography, Yarmouk University, Jordan. His research interests covers areas of remot sensing, model fusion, geographic information system, and multispectral data analysis. He teachs courses related to remote sensing applications, big data analysis, digital cartography for undergradute and posgraduate students. He is also an editorial and reviewer board member of various international journals in the field of remote sensing.