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Evaluation of Istanbul Air Pollution in Combating COVID-19
https://doi.org/10.15518/isjaee.2021.01.006
Abstract
COVID-19 period changed daily-life such as precautions, restrictions and most importantly lockdowns in almost every country. Turkey has been one of the struggling countries especially the period after 15th of March, 2020. As many scientists from all over the world have been researching coronavirus’ medication, COVID-19’s possible relations have been also investigated. These relations are mostly focused on the respiratory system and immune system as well as human-to-human transmission. Air pollution is also known as a threatening factor for human life, furthermore China’s reduced air pollution is shown in the COPERNICUS Sentinel 5P and TERRA/MODIS AOD images during the lockdown process. In this study, it is aimed to analyze the air pollution in Istanbul while life in Turkey has almost stopped. Ministry of Environment and Urbanization’s PM10, PM2.5, NO2, CO, SO2 and O3 pollutant datasets are taken into consideration as two different periods which represent the time before the lockdown from Jan 1st to March 15th as first period and during the lockdown from March 16th to May 31st as second period for Istanbul is analyzed. These periods are also examined for the same dates in 2018 and 2019. Results are important to find out how air pollution has decreased in Istanbul during coronavirus lockdown period, especially 40% decrease of NO2 pollutant in contrast with 2018 and 2019 dataset for the same period of the year in 2020.
Supporting agencies: The authors are thankful to the Ministry of Environment and Urbanization and Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality for providing pollutant data used in this study and sincerely grateful to the healthcare professionals for their devoted work during this period
About the Authors
Büşra Öztürk
Istanbul Technical University, Faculty of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Department of Meteorological Engineering
Turkey
Turkey
Büşra Öztürk, 4th year student, Department of Meteorological Engineering
34469, Maslak, Istanbul
İpek Çöl
Istanbul Technical University, Faculty of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Department of Meteorological Engineering
Turkey
Turkey
İpek Çöl, Senior student, Department of Meteorological Engineering
34469, Maslak, Istanbul
Rahan Öztürk
Istanbul Technical University, Faculty of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Department of Meteorological Engineering
Turkey
Turkey
Rahan Öztürk, Graduated from Meteorological Engineering Program İTÜ. Atmospheric Science Master’s Student
34469, Maslak, Istanbul
Umur Dinç
Istanbul Technical University, Faculty of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Department of Meteorological Engineering
Turkey
Turkey
Umur Dinç, 3rd year Graduate Student, Graduate School of Science Engineering and Technology, Atmospheric Sciences Graduate Program
34469, Maslak, Istanbul
Yiğitalp Kara
Istanbul Technical University, Faculty of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Department of Meteorological Engineering
Turkey
Turkey
Yiğitalp Kara, 3rd year Undergraduate student, Department of Meteorological Engineering and Department of Geological Engineering (Minor).
34469, Maslak, Istanbul
Zeynep Feriha Ünal
Istanbul Technical University, Faculty of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Department of Meteorological Engineering
Turkey
Turkey
Zeynep Feriha Ünal, 2nd year Graduate Student, Graduate School of Science Engineering and Technology, Atmospheric Sciences Graduate Program
34469, Maslak, Istanbul
Hüseyin Toros
Istanbul Technical University, Faculty of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Department of Meteorological Engineering
Turkey
Turkey
Hüseyin Toros, Professor, Department of meteorology; Atmospheric Science Programme Coordinator
34469, Maslak, Istanbul
Aydın Ulubey
Trakya University, Faculty of Science, Department of Physics
Turkey
Turkey
Aydın Ulubey, Professor, Department of Physics, Turkey; Head Chair “Solid State Physics”.
22030 Edirne
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Review
For citations:
Öztürk B., Çöl İ., Öztürk R., Dinç U., Kara Y., Ünal Z.F., Toros H., Ulubey A. Evaluation of Istanbul Air Pollution in Combating COVID-19. Alternative Energy and Ecology (ISJAEE). 2021;(1-3):91-101. https://doi.org/10.15518/isjaee.2021.01.006
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