Aerosol Optical Depth (AOD) Variation Over Haryana Due to Lockdown Amid Covid-19 as an Indicator of Air Quality

Air quality is an important parameter related to the human health. Aerosol Optical Depth (AOD) is an important variable that indicates column integrated particulate matter in the air and used for air quality assessment. Thus in the current study AOD derived from Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) at a spatial resolution of 3 km have been used as an indicator of air quality. Results indicate that the AOD concentration has decreased by 35% during the lockdown period in the month of April 2020 as compared to the years 2016 to 2019 in the same month. This indicates that the air quality was improved during the lockdown amid COVID-19 over the Haryana state. The same was conformed from the reduction of Particulate Matter (PM2.5) concentration by 68% during the lockdown period as compared to the year 2019 for NCR region of Haryana.