Modeling the impact of COVID-19 on air quality in southern California: implications for future control policies

Jiang, Zhe; Shi, Hongrong; Zhao, Bin; Gu, Yu; Zhu, Yifang; Miyazaki, Kazuyuki; Lu, Xin; Zhang, Yuqiang; Bowman, Kevin W.; Sekiya, Takashi; Liou, Kuo-Nan

doi:https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-8693-2021

Articles | Volume 21, issue 11

https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-8693-2021

© Author(s) 2021. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-8693-2021

© Author(s) 2021. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Articles | Volume 21, issue 11

Research article

|

09 Jun 2021

Research article |

| 09 Jun 2021

Modeling the impact of COVID-19 on air quality in southern California: implications for future control policies

Zhe Jiang, Hongrong Shi, Bin Zhao, Yu Gu, Yifang Zhu, Kazuyuki Miyazaki, Xin Lu, Yuqiang Zhang, Kevin W. Bowman, Takashi Sekiya, and Kuo-Nan Liou

Supplement

https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-8693-2021-supplement

Data sets

Air Quality Data California Air Resources Board https://www.arb.ca.gov/aqmis2/aqdselect.php

Chemical Reanalysis Products K. Miyazaki, K. Bowman, T. Sekiya, H. Eskes, F. Boersma, H. Worden, N. Livesey, V. H. Payne, K. Sudo, Y. Kanaya, M. Takigawa, and K. Ogochi https://doi.org/10.25966/9qgv-fe81

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Short summary

We use the COVID-19 pandemic as a unique natural experiment to obtain a more robust understanding of the effectiveness of emission reductions toward air quality improvement by combining chemical transport simulations and observations. Our findings imply a shift from current control policies in California: a strengthened control on primary PM_2.5 emissions and a well-balanced control on NO_x and volatile organic compounds are needed to effectively and sustainably alleviate PM_2.5 and O₃ pollution.