A048-05
An Examination of the Impact of Local Shelter-in-Place Orders on Atmospheric Aerosol Mass and Chemical Composition in Boulder Colorado During the COVID-19 Pandemic
Tuesday, 8 December 2020: 10:46
Virtual
Ann Middlebrook1, Kenneth C. Aikin2,3, Raul J Alvarez II1, Elizabeth Asher1,4, Megan Bela1,5, Charles A Brock6, Steven S Brown7, Matthew Mitchell Coggon8,9, Delphine Farmer10, Jessica Gilman1, Georgios Gkatzelis11, Katherine Lynne Hayden12, Jian He13, Aaron Lamplugh11, Andrew O'Neil Langford14, Meng Li15, Brandi McCarty1,16, Brian C McDonald15, Stuart A McKeen17, Jeff Peischl11, James Roberts18, Michael A Robinson11, Andrew W Rollins9, Rebecca Schwantes19, Christoph J Senff1,20, Troy D Thornberry9,21, Michael Trainer2 and Carsten Warneke11, (1)NOAA Chemical Sciences Laboratory, Boulder, CO, United States, (2)Chemical Sciences Laboratory, NOAA Earth System Research Laboratories, Boulder, CO, United States, (3)Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences (CIRES), University of Colorado, Boulder, CO, United States, (4)Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences, Chemical Sciences Division, Boulder, CO, United States, (5)Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences (CIRES) University of Colorado, Boulder, CO, United States, (6)NOAA Chemical Sciences Laboratory, Boulder, United States, (7)NOAA Earth System Research Laboratory, Chemical Sciences Laboratory, Boulder, CO, United States, (8)Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences, Boulder, CO, United States, (9)NOAA Earth System Research Laboratory, Chemical Sciences Division, Boulder, CO, United States, (10)Department of Chemistry, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO, United States, (11)CIRES and NOAA ESRL, Chemical Sciences Laboratory, Boulder, CO, United States, (12)Environment and Climate Change Canada, Air Quality Research Division, Toronto, ON, Canada, (13)Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences (CIRES) University of Colorado and NOAA ESRL Chemical Sciences Laboratory, Boulder, United States, (14)NOAA Earth System Research Laboratory, Boulder, CO, United States, (15)Chemical Sciences Division, NOAA Earth System Research Laboratory, Boulder, CO, United States, (16)Cooperative Institute for research in Environmental Sciences, University of Colorado, Boulder, United States, (17)NOAA ESRL/CSL and CU Boulder/CIRES, Boulder, CO, United States, (18)NOAA ESRL, Chemical Sciences Laboratory, Boulder, CO, United States, (19)Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences (CIRES) University of Colorado and NOAA ESRL Chemical Sciences Laboratory, Boulder, CO, United States, (20)Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences, University of Colorado, Boulder, CO, United States, (21)Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences, University of Colorado Boulder, Boulder, CO, United States
Abstract:
The COVID-19 pandemic has caused large segments of regional populations to shelter-in-place, resulting in decreased atmospheric emissions from transportation and industry. As an example, dramatic reductions in nitrogen dioxide were clearly visible in highly publicized satellite images. These and other lower emissions have the potential to affect air quality depending on the local conditions such as prior historical pollutant levels, seasonality, and meteorology. Here we focus on ground-based measurements of aerosol mass and chemical composition along with trace gas species made in Boulder Colorado during the spring and early summer of 2020 when local shelter-in-place orders were in effect and then slowly lifted. Additional measurements were made later in the summer at a time when ozone pollution levels typically peak in the region. Chemical markers from various sources and secondary chemical reactions in the aerosol and gas phase mass spectra are explored using positive matrix factorization. This combined dataset is used to examine the impact of the local reduced anthropogenic emissions on the mass and chemical composition of aerosol particles.
