ABSTRACT
This study assessed the impact of Covid-19 lockdown on air pollutant NO2 and SO2 in Ogoniland, River State using Sentinel 5-p.This study was done to determine the relative changes of air quality in Ogoniland for three years (2019, 2020 and 2021). Sentinel 5-P which fall under secondary images was used for this study, and was accessed through a website called the Google Earth Engine. A script created for Sentinel 5-P extraction was inputted in the engine which facilitated the extraction of these images. After the extraction of the images and download, they were analyzed and processed using the ArcGIS 10.4, which is Geographic Information System software.
In this study, January to June of 2019 had the highest mean value of 0.00006367 mol/m2 for the concentration of NO2 compared to July to December whose mean value was
0.000062443mol/m2. In 2020 there was no significant variation on the concentration of NO2 in the study area. However, January to June had a mean value of 0.0000057821mol/m2 and July to December had a mean value of 0.000057821mol/m2. But there was a significant decline in the amount of NO2 in the atmosphere compared to 2019. This result can be attributed to the lockdown which started in Nigeria in March 2020. With respect to the lockdown, there was highly minimized activity either vehicular movement or industrial activities that could hardly change the concentration of NO2 throughout the whole of 2020.
In 2021 it was discovered that there was an elevation in the concentration of NO2 compared to 2020 in the study area at the second half of the year July to December with the mean value of 0.00006188mol/m2. The relative changes between the first and second half of 2021 can be attributed to the full restoration or resumption of activities such as industrial activities, vehicular movement among others at the second half of the year.
