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Changes in Ultrafine Particle Concentrations near a Major Airport Following Reduced Transportation Activity during the COVID-19 Pandemic
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2022-08-01
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[PDF-3.25 MB]
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Abstract:Mobility reductions following the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States were higher, and sustained longer, for aviation than ground transportation activity. We evaluate changes in ultrafine particle (UFP, Dp < 100 nm, a marker of fuel combustion emissions) concentrations at a site near Logan Airport (Boston, Massachusetts) in relation to mobility reductions. Several years of particle number concentration (PNC) data prepandemic [1/2017−9/2018] and during the state-of-emergency (SOE) phase of the pandemic [4/2020−6/2021] were analyzed to assess the emissions reduction impact on PNC, controlling for season and wind direction. Mean PNC was 48% lower during the first three months of the SOE than prepandemic, consistent with 74% lower flight activity and 39% (local)−51% (highway) lower traffic volume. Traffic volume and mean PNC for all wind directions returned to prepandemic levels by 6/2021; however, when the site was downwind from Logan Airport, PNC remained lower than prepandemic levels (by 23%), consistent with lower-than-normal flight activity (44% below prepandemic levels). Our study shows the effect of pandemic-related mobility changes on PNC in a near-airport community, and it distinguishes aviation-related and ground transportation source contributions.
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Content Notes:This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0)) license https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/. Please cite this article as: Sean C. Mueller, Neelakshi Hudda, Jonathan I. Levy, John L. Durant, Prasad Patil, Nina Franzen Lee, Ida Weiss, Tyler Tatro, Tiffany Duhl, and Kevin Lane Environmental Science & Technology Letters 2022 9 (9), 706-711 DOI: 10.1021/acs.estlett.2c00322
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