Environmental dynamics for analyzing atmospheric pollutants and meteorological patterns in Chennai during the Covid-19 outbreak

In response to the new coronavirus epidemic, the Indian government implemented a lockdown policy to stop the virus’s spread. There is already ample evidence from several studies that the Covid-19 control measures have benefited climates and air quality. This study thus concentrated on the changes in climate and air quality in the four locations in Chennai, Tamil Nadu, namely, Kodungaiyur, Royapuram, Perungudi, and Koyambedu, which were determined to be significant areas for both climate change and air pollution. The study includes seven meteorological variables, such as ambient temperature (AT), relative humidity (RH), wind speed (WS), wind direction (WD), solar radiation (SR), barometric pressure (BP), and rainfall (RF), as well as seven air pollutant concentrations like particulate matter ≤ 10 microns (PM10), particulate matter ≤ 2.5 microns (PM2.5), sulfur dioxide (SO2), nitrogen dioxide (NO2), carbon monoxide (CO), ammonia (NH3), and ozone (O3), to assess climate change and air pollution in these areas. This study compares the levels of pollutants before, during, and after the Covid-19 pandemic (month-by-month comparison) and calculates the levels during the first and second waves of the pandemic. Using FDA, FANOVA and multivariate FANOVA, the effect of lockdown on air quality and its correlation with meteorological variables is evaluated. The results of this study indicated that lockdown significantly impacted the meteorological variables, and hence the temporary reduction in air pollutants is being evaluated.