TITLE:
On the Relationship between Meteorological Variables, Dst Index, Solar Wind Speed, Solar Radio Flux, and Cosmic Rays and COVID-19 Cases
AUTHORS:
Maghrabi Abdullrahman
KEYWORDS:
COVID-19, Solar Activity, Meteorology, Space Weather, Cosmic Rays
JOURNAL NAME:
Atmospheric and Climate Sciences,
Vol.12 No.3,
May
31,
2022
ABSTRACT: This study aims to determine the influential role of
the meteorological, solar, and geophysical factors and cosmic rays on the
transmission of COVID-19 in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. The meteorological factors
were air temperature, relative humidity, wind speed, and atmospheric pressure.
The solar radio flux, Dst index, and solar wind speed were utilized as
representatives of the solar and geophysical variables. The association between
these variables and the COVID-19 pandemic cases from 3 April 2020 to 1 August
2021 was investigated using the Spearman and Kendall rank correlation tests. The
obtained results showed that the air temperature and average wind speed are
positively associated with the daily number of reported COVID-19 cases. On the
other hand, the mean values of relative humidity and atmospheric pressure are inversely correlated with the number of
COVID-19 cases in Riyadh. Moreover, the results showed that the Dst index and
cosmic rays are positively correlated with the COVID-19 cases. Contrarily,
solar wind speed and radio flux at 10.7 cm have negative correlations with the
COVID-19 cases. The obtained results will help the epidemiologists to
understand the behavior of the virus against meteorological, solar, and geophysical variables and can be considered
as a useful supplement to help
national and international organizations and healthcare policymakers in
the process of strategizing to combat COVID-19.