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Improvement of Atmospheric Pollution in the Capital Cities of US during COVID-19
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  • Ritvik Mishra,
  • Nrusingha Mishra,
  • Ramesh P Singh,
  • Rozalin Mishra
Ritvik Mishra
Cosumnes Oaks High School, Cosumnes Oaks High School

Corresponding Author:mishraritvik@yahoo.com

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Nrusingha Mishra
Trinity Technology, Trinity Technology
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Ramesh P Singh
Chapman University, Chapman University
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Rozalin Mishra
Placer County, Placer County
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Abstract

COVID-19 is a deadly pandemic affecting cities in the US, which slows down life and has affected many different sectors of our daily lives such as business, travel, hospitality, and education. With the growing COVID-19 cases, some of the states have issued advisories to the people to stay home and keep social distancing. It has been observed that people have followed the social distancing regulations in some states, whereas in others the regulations were not heeded. We have analyzed various atmospheric parameters over the capital cities of the US during the COVID-19 lockdown. We have carried out an analysis of the daily Aerosol Optical Depth (AOD) and Nitrogen Dioxide (NO2) data derived from the MODIS Terra, Aqua, and AIRS satellite, which could provide information about the decline in traffic emissions during the period January – June 2020. Comparison of this data with the same period of 2019 shows a decline in AOD and NO2 which can be due to the fact that some of the US capitals have strictly followed social distancing and some of the states ignored and as a result the COVID-19 cases have surged in many cities. We have studied PM2.5 using the published data from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the total column of ozone retrieved from OMI AURA satellite. A decline in the particle matter (PM2.5) and observed an increase in the total column of ozone. The COVID-19 lockdown shows an improvement in air quality, good for human health but on the other hand, lockdown has seriously impacted the day to day life.