A095-0011
Impact of COVID-19 outbreak on volatile organic compounds (VOCs) concentration in New York City

Thursday, 10 December 2020
Poster
Cong Cao, Stony Brook University, School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences, Stony Brook, NY, United States, John E Mak, SUNY Stony Brook, School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences, Stony Brook, NY, United States, Ricardo Toledo-Crow, City University of New York, New York, NY, United States, Roisin Commane, Columbia University in the City of New York, New York, NY, United States and Drew R Gentner, Yale University, Department of Chemical and Environmental Engineering, New Haven, CT, United States
Abstract:
Since the COVID-19 took place in early 2020, the economic activities in the United States were dramatically reduced, accompanied by a strong reduction in the emission of primary air pollutants. In New York State, PAUSE was implemented on March, 2020, after which time the majority of economic activity was halted throughout the state, including New York City. We had deployed our proton transfer reaction time-of-flight mass spectrometry (PTR-ToF-MS) to New York City (ASRC Observatory, Harlem) in January 2020 and operated remotely through the shutdown. Here we present measurements of select VOCs from New York City before, during, and after PAUSE. Here we present the diurnal trends during the first half of 2020 from NYC and discuss implications to air chemistry. Our results include, for example, average levels of fossil fuel tracers (toluene, benzene, and xylenes) decreased by approximately 30-50%, concentrations of Decamethylcyclopentasiloxane (D5, emission from personal care products) decreased by around 60%, and ethanol and acetic acid (emission from cleaning products, etc.) decreased by around 30%, between pre-PAUSE and post-PAUSE.
<< Previous Abstract | Next Abstract >>