COVID-19 lockdown improves air quality in Morocco

Abstract

Several measures have been taken to mitigate the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. In this context, almost all non-essential activities in Morocco have been halted since March 20, 2020. From that date, Morocco announced the lockdown for one month and it was extended until June 10, 2020. The main objective of this paper is to study the effects of the lockdown measures on air quality, by analyzing dust PM2.5, NO2, and O3. The dust PM2.5 analysis was carried out from 2016 to 2020. NO2 and O3 analysis was carried out in 2019 and 2020. This study, which is based on satellite data from TROPOMI Sentinel 5P and MERRA, has shown that Morocco has experienced an improvement in air quality during the lockdown. A significant reduction in surface dust PM2.5 and tropospheric NO2 was observed (-10%, -4%, respectively on average). The total column of ozone recorded a slight increase on average of around 1%. Moreover, we demonstrate that a significant part of particulate pollution and NO2 emissions are incoming mainly from the northern and northern-eastern borders of Morocco.