Fair weather electric field variability in Buenos Aires: The role of traffic and pandemic lockdowns

Abstract

The potential gradient variable (PG) is sensitive to several atmospheric processes.This study analyses the effect of traffic on the PG recorded at the Buenos Aires stationunder fair weather (FW) conditions. To identify the existence or not of an effect of trafficon the PG (FW), different statistical techniques were used. Significant differences werefound in the daily means of PG (FW) between weekdays (W) and weekends (Wd), withconsistent patterns throughout the year. In addition, spectral analysis revealed asignificant seven-day cycle. When vehicular flow and nitrogen dioxide(NO2)concentrations were examined for both W and Wd days, they showed a variationconsistent with the changes observed in PG (FW). Although aerosol optical depht(AOD) showed some changes in its daily variability, it did not show significantdifferences in its daily means. During the SARS-CoV-2 confinement in 2020, adecrease in PG (FW) was observed, accompanied by a decrease in vehicular flow andNO2, reinforcing the idea of the influence of these emissions on PG (FW). Theseresults highlight the importance of considering anthropogenic effects when analysingPG (FW) in urban areas, especially in locations with low measured pollutant emissions.