Marquez 1

Rosemarie Marquez
ENC 1102-21
03/03/2021

Research Dossier introduction : Lockdown has been impactful to the

atmosphere.

  For years now, NASA and other scientific communities have been telling the public about
how important the environment is for its inhabitants. Some public figures choose to not listen,
and others choose to continue fighting for better actions toward the environment. Some people
believe that this fight is focused on climate change and endangered species. However, this is not
so. Since I took Ap environment in high school I came to learn that there’s a lot of work to be
done in every area of the environment. For instance, I learned that due to humans’ daily actions,
the atmosphere has been drastically impacted such as the infamous ozone level depletion in the
70s, and the atmosphere being polluted to the point that most people in the world don’t have
good air quality which causes a lot of health risks. By learning this relationship between humans
and the atmosphere, I was inspired to continue learning about how we as humans impact the
environment. Once I was given the chance to choose a topic, I decided on the changes in the
environment. Specifically, due to my biochemistry major, I have chosen to focus my research on
the changes in air quality when there was minimal human interaction with the atmosphere. Since
I wanted to both put emphasis on how important our actions are to the environment around us,
specifically something as vital as the air we breathe in, but also include how chemistry has a
hand in how air quality can change if there are less or more chemical emissions to the
atmosphere. Such as chemical pollutants, like carbon monoxide (CO) and Ozone (O3). Since in
the United States most people don’t have bad air quality, people and the government don’t focus
and understand how emitting toxic pollutants can impact the atmosphere’s air quality. Therefore,
doing my research will show how our actions affect the air quality. 
 
       There are many different perspectives I want to address in my research. I want to address
how the air quality has changed during the lockdown, but specifically in the top three countries
that were impacted by COVID-19: United States, China, and India. To see if they all had the
same experience or did it differ. I also want to see how the emissions were changed in relation to
these three countries and by doing so I can better explain why the changes occurred and the
importance of the emissions for air quality. Moreover, I also want to tackle air pollution.
Specifically on the ozone (O3) pollutant, since my studies showed that in different countries it
has been impacted greatly and poses great risks. I also want to see how scientists view these
changes to the atmosphere and if it will last long. There are different sections of the research’s
perspectives because the air quality is influenced by many aspects; therefore, to explain how it
has been changed efficiently I have to tackle all the changes in relation to air quality. My
bibliography showed the sources that explain how air quality has changed in different cities and
how the air pollution and emissions have changed as well. For instance , in Yang, Jiani, et al , it
describes Los Angeles’s emissions decrease concentration and how it impacted the air quality
and pollution in the city , in Worden, Helen, et al. has graphs and figures that showed the
changes in emissions and how some was not due to lockdown , but in wildfires , and in GA.
Marquez 2

Allen, J. Lawrence, et al it showed how a emissions called black carbon was reduced greatly plus
with other emissions in Eastern China.

  In the research process, I have accomplished a research proposal, research map, and a
Digital Paper trail. This all helped me formulate a research topic and what kind of questions and
direction I wanted to go toward with my research. Another thing that I have accomplished in my
research is now after looking at my sources (due to DPT) I am now able to answer the research
question with backup information to help readers understand the research and with evidence to
back up my research. I have also found the top reasons for the changes in the emissions and the
graphs to back it up. Also, I believe, I found a section in my research that has different results in
every area of how the lockdown impacted it - Ozone pollutant (O3). This is something I did not
have before looking for it and can be very educational due to perceptions in my research.
However, it is important to note that it still needs more research on that section.

However, even though I have accomplished some critical steps toward my research, I have
encountered some issues that I had to solve before continuing on my research. One of my biggest
roadblocks is that I had to change my research question a bit due to the lack of sources that I had.
For instance, I had no sources for ozone level nor the third perspective for my paper. This posed
a huge roadblock since the only information that I had for my research was the changes in air
quality and at the time of the issue, I believed I had nothing to contrast it to or compare it to. I
solved this roadblock by looking at what sources I did have and by also listening to what my
peers and professor had to say. Which led me to figure out that I had enough sources to talk
about how COVID-19 impacted the air quality of different countries and the factors that
influence it. Moreover, another small roadblock was the similarities between a lot of my sources,
especially air quality. Even though the similarities were in different countries, I felt that down
the road during my research this will pose a problem, since I would not have enough details to
write about my research. However, by learning more about the countries and once again listening
to my peers, I learn that it was not a bad thing, I just need to organize my sources better and plan
well before writing my research. Another smaller issue I currently have with my research is the
organization part. Meaning that I am struggling with how I am going to touch on different
countries’ air pollution, air quality, and emissions in a clear and organized way. Since the
audience needs to be able to read and understand my information well. One way I am planning
on fixing this is just planning constantly and drafting different ways of doing so. So far, I am
planning on starting with emissions, so that the audience can understand the chemistry behind it
and what I will touch on in other sections. I do believe it's an issue that I can easily solve the
research process get far enough.

Research proposal

Subject: Research Proposal: Air quality impacted by COVID-19’s lockdown.

Marquez 3

Topic description: 
    In my research, I will touch on how the air quality in different countries was impacted during
the lockdown. I will also look at the perspectives of scientists that state that Covid-19 was good
for the atmosphere, specifically the air quality, but that it won’t last forever and the evidence that
backs it. Since air pollution and a country’s emissions influence air quality, I will also address
the changes that occurred to air pollution and emissions during COVID-19. Meaning that during,
all the research I will look at both the different chemical emissions types and amount in relation
to both air pollution and the atmosphere during Covid-19, to write a research paper that clearly
explains how the pandemic impacts air quality due to changes to both air pollution and chemical
emissions.

Documentation Style:   For my research, I choose MLA because any topic that touches on
chemistry and atmosphere will be a bit difficult to read. So, to make sure that all my audience
can understand the content clearly and find the information easily, the format that I choose must
be organized and easy to do so. 

Purpose: My major is biochemistry since biochemistry influences the world around us. I believe
it's important to research something that shows how important chemistry is to something so vital
for humans to have: air. Therefore, by having my research be “ how has COVID-19 changed the
air quality in different countries “ I am able as a freshman to explain how air quality is impacted
by a change in emissions during a situation where the world is emitting it less. Therefore, giving
me more knowledge on chemistry and a head start on other classes. By the end of the research, I
hope that the audience will understand why scientists around the world are constantly telling the
world about the dangers of toxic pollutants and their emissions, and the importance of air
quality. 

Intended audience: My audience will be an ENC 1102 class of different majors, such as
forensic science and economics. Since not all of them will have the same major as me, I will
make sure that I define any scientific vocabulary and concept that I believe that the audience will
not understand. Moreover, the audience will benefit from the research topic by the way that they
will learn about the importance of the atmosphere specifically the air quality, and how
chemistry-emissions -affects it. They will also learn how a population under a lockdown due to
COVID-19 can impact it as well. By knowing this, the class can be more aware of how humans
affect air quality and emissions. Overall, the audience will have educational benefits from this
research. 

 Research Question / Preliminary Thesis / Argument:

 Research Question:   How the changes in emissions and air pollution caused by the COVID-19
Pandemic, impacted the atmosphere – specifically the air quality – in the United States, China,
and India.
Marquez 4

Thesis: The pandemic of Covid-19 made nations go under lockdown, this led to many people
and companies not releasing harmful chemicals into the atmosphere. The lessening of the release
of harmful chemicals possibly impacted countries’ air quality and air pollution. 

Types of research areas:  To help provide evidence to my research, I will be using three areas
of evidence inquiry: scholarly, internet, and library. I will not be using field research. I will be
using scholarly and the internet since my research will need the information on emissions before
and after COVID-19. As well as evidence of changes in the atmosphere’s air quality. Moreover,
my major does not limit any type of evidence inquiry, it will only limit sources that do not follow
the scientific approach or state false facts. Some examples of my research area that I have found
were NASA articles from the internet, youtube’s news outlets, and scientific journals from both
google scholar and the UCF library. 

Keywords :
- “COVID-19 impact on atmosphere “
- “Air pollution 2020”
- “NASA on covid-19 on atmosphere”
- “ Green Gas emission Chemistry “
- “Air quality ”

Which obstacles do you anticipate?

     I anticipate one of my obstacles will be organizing the content in how the air quality has been
impacted in different countries, and how the countries’ lockdown had an influence over it. 

 Which possible venues do you wish to explore but because of time constraints you will not
be able to do it?
    One of the possible venues I wish I can explore but I can’t because of both time constraints
and how complicated the venue is how the temperature has changed. I can not explore this
because the temperature is more than just the atmosphere, it also depends on the geological
location and natural phenomenon like La Nina ( weather pattern ) during its 2020-2021 path. 

Deadlines
Marquez 5
 Marquez 6

                                                  Annotated Bibliography

 

1. AlArabiyaEnglish. Before and after Coronavirus as Humans Lockdown, the Planet's Air Clears.
Before and after Coronavirus as Humans Lockdown, the Planet's Air Clears/Youtube,
AlArabiyaEnglish, 20 Apr. 2020, www.youtube.com/watch?v=DoCMxOGbZSo.

Content : This video gives information about before the lockdown , during the lockdown and after the
lockdown. It shows pictures and the speakers explains the situations.

Author : ALArabiya

Since , it is a news outlet in youtube , I can’t tell the credibility of it. All they do state where the images
is for.

BEAM : There seem to be no bias , since they just explain the situation and show pictures of the stages
of lockdown. The perspectives is how much the lockdown changes emissions , pollution , and air
quality. This function for me because I can see stages of the pandamic , which is important for
me to answer my research questions.

2. Bourzac, Katherine. “COVID-19 Lockdowns Had Strange Effects on Air Pollution across   the
Globe.” Chemical & Engineering News, 25 Sept. 2020, pp. 30–35.,   doi:10.47287/cen-09837-
cover.

-  This news explain situation of differen’t countries in relation to their changes of atmosphere ,
emissions and air quality. They state that there been unusal patterns which gives the scientists a
lot to figure out.

Author : Katherine Bourzac. Since , it is a news I don’t know if they change into it. However they
do cite everything in put in the news.

BEAM : Since , it is a news , there can always be a bias in the paper , since it it is target for a audience,
however , they do back everything they state and don’t try to put any emotion into it. Their
perspective is that due to Covid many activites stop , so unusal patterns of emissions and air
quality appear. This function because it gives me a lot of views of differen’t countries.

3. Chen, Kai, et al. “Air Pollution Reduction and Mortality Benefit during the COVID-19 Outbreak
in China.” The Lancet Planetary Health, Elsevier Ltd, 13 May 2020,
www.thelancet.com/pdfs/journals/lanplh/PIIS2542-5196(20)30107-8.pdf.
 Marquez 7

Content  In this journal , it focus on what China did to control the spread of Covid-19 and how that
decreases emissions from transportation as well as the slight decrease or lack of change in “
residential heating and industry. ” They also focus on how that impacted air pollution.

Author  Kai Chen , Meng Wang , Conghong Huang , Patrick L Kinney , and Paul T Anastas. They have
credibility due to all of them are in the a university of public health. Kai Chen and Paul Anastas ,
in yale school , Patrick L Kinney in Boston university , and the others in Buffalo Public health.
 
Beam : I don’t think they have no bias , since they prove any claim they have by different type of graphs
and by showing where they got all their evidence. Their perspective was that due to decrease
emissions in China , air pollution decreased. This function by the way that this give me a source
and evidence to see the causes of air pollution and what can influence a change of it.
 

4. Connerton, Patrick, et al. “Air Quality during COVID-19 in Four Megacities: Lessons and
Challenges for Public Health.” MDPI, Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute, 14 July
2020, www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/17/14/5067/htm. 

Content : In this study it analyzed four cities  : Paris , Loz Angeles ,  São Paulo , and New York. The
writers looked at the emissions during the lockdown and compared it to the years of 2015-2019
to see the changes of toxic chemicals - has it increased or decreased. They found that these
emissions during the lockdown decrease ( PM2.5 , NO2, CO) which lead to cleaner air and an
increase of tropospheric ozone levels in every city but in Los Angeles. This can have health
implications for the better for its citizens.

Author : Patrick Connerton , Vicente de Assunção , Maura de Miranda , thée Slovic , ,dro José Pérez-
Martínez  andHelena Ribeiro.

-They are in a grad program or at a university.

BEAM : In this article , it shows little to no bias since they back all of their claims with evidence. It is
very reliable because it has been revised and accepted to be published. The function of the study
is to state how these cities have been impacted by the lockdown in relation to their air quality and
toxic chemicals.

5. Filonchyk, Mikalai, et al. “Impact Assessment of COVID-19 on Variations of SO2, NO2, CO

and AOD over East China.” Aerosol and Air Quality Research, Taiwan Association for Aerosol
Research, 9 June 2020, aaqr.org/articles/aaqr-20-05-covid-0226.

       Content In this journal , the writers focus its study on East China. They study how the Covid-19
impacted East China air quaily and other environment aspect. The studied focus on four
differen’t type of emissions , they were : No2 , CO , AOD , and SO2 , in two different time
 Marquez 8

period of the pandamic. Before the lockdown and after the lockdown. They found that most of
the emissions decreased in East China.

   Author : Mikalai Filonchyk  , Volha Hurynovich , Haowen Yan ,  and Andrei Gusev , 3

Natallia Shpilevskay. They all have high credibility since all of them work for a laboratory
for National Geographic and if not are in a university.

     BEAM : They don’t portray any bias , since any claims and evidence that they presented were
backed by statistics and graphs. The perspective of this journal is how a lockdown can decrease
greatly toxic emissions due to lack of human interaction in the atmosphere , such as travel’s
emissions. This will serve as a evidence for my research when it comes to decrease of emissions.

6. GA. Allen, J. Lawrence, et al. “COVID-19 Lockdowns Reduce the Black Carbon and Polycyclic
Aromatic Hydrocarbons of the Asian Atmosphere: Source Apportionment and Health Hazard
Evaluation.” Environment, Development and Sustainability, Springer Netherlands, 1 Jan. 1999,
link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10668-020-01167-1#Sec16.

Content : In this study , researches focus it on India when all activities stop due to Lockdown. They
study “ air pollutants “ and found that they were drastically decreased. They study emissions like
Black Carbon , cigrates emissions , called PSC and carbon burning called  PAHs.
Author : Balram Ambade, Tapan Kumar Sankar , Amit Kumar Sankar , Alok Sagar Gautum , and Sneha
Gautam. They all had credibility since , they were all part of a department of physics , chemistry
or/and technology.
BEAM : Thye had no bias , since they all prove their claims by explaining their methods of achieveing
their evidence and their math and by citing anything that they did not do. Their perspectives was
that since India’s activies stop than they were able to accurately see how much impact India’s
activites as on the the atmosphere’s emissions and air quality. This function by the way that this
gives me more explanation for india’s air quality and emissions changes with numbers to back it
up.

7. Kroll, Jesse H., et al. “The Complex Chemical Effects of COVID-19 Shutdowns on Air Quality.”
Nature News, Nature Publishing Group, 25 Aug. 2020, www.nature.com/articles/s41557-020-
0535-z.

 Content : In this article it gives another perceptive of the decrease of emissions and the increase of air
quality during the lockdown. It explains that the relationship is more complicated and that to
accurately state the air quality due to the lockdown have to look not just at the NO2 emissions
but other chemical reactions and emissions.  It explains how complicated the chemical reactions
the emissions are.

 
 Marquez 9

8. “Lower Atmosphere Ozone Dropped 7% during COVID-19 Pandemic, Study Finds.” AGU
Newsroom, 17 Feb. 2021, news.agu.org/press-release/lower-atmosphere-ozone-dropped-7-
during-covid-19-pandemic-study-finds/#.YC06rgcTlss.twitter.

 Content : In this news paper it states that ozone ( not ozone level ) O3 a pollutant drastically decreased
in the Northern Hemispehere , ( by seven percent). This drast decrease was due to lessening of
transportation.This is important due to people’s breath this O3 and has a lot of health
implications stated by the news. It defines what O3 and explains how transportant and human
activities lessen it.

  Author : The AGU news.

Can’t stated how reliable this news is but in their article does cite where they got their facts from.

9. NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center. GMS: NASA Studies How COVID-19 Shutdowns Affect
Emissions. NASA Studies How COVID-19 Shutdowns Affect Emissions, NASA, 17 Nov. 2020,
svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/13753.

Content : In this video , it shows the how COVID-19 shutdowns affected the emissions , specifically
Carbon emissions.  It showed by their satellite , that emissions decreased. For instance 60
percent.

Author : Kathleen Gaeta (GSFC Interns): Lead Producer

Trent L. Schindler (USRA): Lead Visualizer
Christoph A. Keller (USRA): Scientist
Lara Streiff (GSFC Interns): Writer
William Putman (NASA/GSFC): Scientist
Greg Shirah (NASA/GSFC): Data Visualizer
Cindy Starr (GST): Data Visualizer
Aaron Naeger (UAH): Scientist
 
All of this people that worked on the video , were part of NASA and had scientists on their team ,
showing that they have credibility.

BEAM : This video showed no bias , by the way that the speakers in the video explained how they use
NASA equipment to get their evidence and graphs. Their perspectives was that emission
decrease due to air planes not travelings , cars not out of the dtreet as before , companies not
producing as much as before as well. This all lead to a decrease in carbon emissions and others.
This function for my research , since it gives me more reasosn for the changes of emissions and
the changes in air quality.

10.  Venter, Zander S., et al. “COVID-19 Lockdowns Cause Global Air Pollution Declines.” PNAS,
National Academy of Sciences, 11 Aug. 2020, www.pnas.org/content/117/32/18984.

 
 Marquez 10

Content :  In this text , the authors studied how the “ global economic and transport activity “ decrease
impacted the tropospheric and ground level air pollution amount. They found that nitrogen
dioxide decreased by 60 percent , particles like PM2.5 decreased by 31 percent , but O3 ( ozone
increase by 4 percent. They stated that the primary reasons for this happening was the
transportation such as planes , trucks , cars and ships.

Author :  Zander S. Venter,   Kristin Aunan,  Sourangsu Chowdhury, and  

Jos Lelieveld. Most of these authors have a doctorate , work in climate research , and the ones that don’t
have the doctorate yet  are in a grad program.

11.  Worden, Helen, et al. “COVID-19 Impact on Asian Emissions: Insight from Space Observations |
Atmospheric Chemistry Observations & Modeling (ACOM).” NCAR, NCAR, 26 Mar. 2020,
www2.acom.ucar.edu/news/covid-19-impact-asian-emissions-insight-space-observations.

Content : This study focused mostly on the changes of emissions , specifically CO in the Beijing -
Chengdu-Shanghai-Wuhan area and other Chinese areas. They found that many famous
emissions and not famous ones have drastically reduced in the area. Since , there was almost no
human activity going around in the area ( in this study both economic activities and
transportation.)

Author : Helen Worden, Sara Martínez-Alonso, Mijeong Park, and Laura Pan.

Affiliation with the National Center for Atmospheric Research

BEAM : Lack of bias due to all the climas are backed by both staticsitics and graphs. It focuses on the
changes of the emissions within the Chinese area. They wanted to see how it was changed during
the lockdown , in small details they mention air quality getting better drastically and lessening of
wildfires due to changes of atmospheric pollution. 

12.  Yang, Jiani, et al. “The Improvement of the Air Quality Due to Traffic Halting in Los Angeles and
Potential Health Care Risk during the COVID-19 Outbreak.” ArXiv.org, 2 Nov. 2020,
arxiv.org/abs/2011.00700.
 
Content : In this article , it explains and gives information about the impact of air quality during the
lockdown. It states that the air quality in Los Angeles increases due to the decreased activity of
drivers , mainly truck flow. They found much evidence that states that the decrease of truck flow
decreased  air pollution’s gases such as NO2, CO, and PM2.5 by 42.97 percent compared to
traffic flow of 40 percent. Therefore , the article states that due to traffic flow decrease it
increases air quality. It also explains why it is important and many other statics explaining both
the traffic flow effects and truck flow.
 
Author : Jiani Yang , Yuan Wang  , Joseph Pinto , Le Kuai   , King-Fai Li  , Stanley P Sander , and Yuk
L Yung.  All of these authors go to a stem grad school or/and  work in the laboratory. 
 
 Marquez 11

BEAM : Since , the article gives a lot of evidence  to everything they claim it does not have bias that
can influence a reader to a certain side. The article’s function is to explain and give evidence for
the impacts of drivers to the Los Angeles air.  It was  also to show that when all those types of
drivers decrease , air quality increases as well. It is very relevant to the research since all the
evidence is from the lockdown and all the impacts occurred during so as well.