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      COVID‐19 Crisis Reduces Free Tropospheric Ozone Across the Northern Hemisphere

      research-article
      1 , , 1 , 1 , 2 , 2 , 3 , 3 , 4 , 5 , 6 , 7 , 7 , 8 , 9 , 10 , 10 , 11 , 12 , 12 , 13 , 14 , 14 , 15 , 15 , 16 , 16 , 17 , 17 , 18 , 18 , 19 , 18 , 19 , 20 , 21 , 21 , 22 , 23 , 23 , 24 , 24 , 25 , 25 , 25 , 26 , 27 , 27 , 28 , 29 , 30 , 29 , 31 , 29 , 32 , 32 , 19 , 33 , 19 , 33
      Geophysical Research Letters
      John Wiley and Sons Inc.
      COVID‐19, emissions, ozone, troposphere

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          Abstract

          Throughout spring and summer 2020, ozone stations in the northern extratropics recorded unusually low ozone in the free troposphere. From April to August, and from 1 to 8 kilometers altitude, ozone was on average 7% (≈4 nmol/mol) below the 2000–2020 climatological mean. Such low ozone, over several months, and at so many stations, has not been observed in any previous year since at least 2000. Atmospheric composition analyses from the Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service and simulations from the NASA GMI model indicate that the large 2020 springtime ozone depletion in the Arctic stratosphere contributed less than one‐quarter of the observed tropospheric anomaly. The observed anomaly is consistent with recent chemistry‐climate model simulations, which assume emissions reductions similar to those caused by the COVID‐19 crisis. COVID‐19 related emissions reductions appear to be the major cause for the observed reduced free tropospheric ozone in 2020.

          Key Points

          • In spring and summer 2020, stations in the northern extratropics report on average 7% (4 nmol/mol) less tropospheric ozone than normal

          • Such low tropospheric ozone, over several months, and at so many sites, has not been observed in any previous year since at least 2000

          • Most of the reduction in tropospheric ozone in 2020 is likely due to emissions reductions related to the COVID‐19 pandemic

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          Most cited references57

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          The Modern-Era Retrospective Analysis for Research and Applications, Version 2 (MERRA-2)

          The Modern-Era Retrospective Analysis for Research and Applications, Version 2 (MERRA-2) is the latest atmospheric reanalysis of the modern satellite era produced by NASA’s Global Modeling and Assimilation Office (GMAO). MERRA-2 assimilates observation types not available to its predecessor, MERRA, and includes updates to the Goddard Earth Observing System (GEOS) model and analysis scheme so as to provide a viable ongoing climate analysis beyond MERRA’s terminus. While addressing known limitations of MERRA, MERRA-2 is also intended to be a development milestone for a future integrated Earth system analysis (IESA) currently under development at GMAO. This paper provides an overview of the MERRA-2 system and various performance metrics. Among the advances in MERRA-2 relevant to IESA are the assimilation of aerosol observations, several improvements to the representation of the stratosphere including ozone, and improved representations of cryospheric processes. Other improvements in the quality of MERRA-2 compared with MERRA include the reduction of some spurious trends and jumps related to changes in the observing system, and reduced biases and imbalances in aspects of the water cycle. Remaining deficiencies are also identified. Production of MERRA-2 began in June 2014 in four processing streams, and converged to a single near-real time stream in mid 2015. MERRA-2 products are accessible online through the NASA Goddard Earth Sciences Data Information Services Center (GES DISC).
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            Temporary reduction in daily global CO2 emissions during the COVID-19 forced confinement

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              COVID-19 lockdowns cause global air pollution declines

              The lockdown response to coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has caused an unprecedented reduction in global economic and transport activity. We test the hypothesis that this has reduced tropospheric and ground-level air pollution concentrations, using satellite data and a network of >10,000 air quality stations. After accounting for the effects of meteorological variability, we find declines in the population-weighted concentration of ground-level nitrogen dioxide (NO 2 : 60% with 95% CI 48 to 72%), and fine particulate matter (PM 2.5 : 31%; 95% CI: 17 to 45%), with marginal increases in ozone (O 3 : 4%; 95% CI: −2 to 10%) in 34 countries during lockdown dates up until 15 May. Except for ozone, satellite measurements of the troposphere indicate much smaller reductions, highlighting the spatial variability of pollutant anomalies attributable to complex NO x chemistry and long-distance transport of fine particulate matter with a diameter less than 2.5 µm (PM 2.5 ). By leveraging Google and Apple mobility data, we find empirical evidence for a link between global vehicle transportation declines and the reduction of ambient NO 2 exposure. While the state of global lockdown is not sustainable, these findings allude to the potential for mitigating public health risk by reducing “business as usual” air pollutant emissions from economic activities. Explore trends here: https://nina.earthengine.app/view/lockdown-pollution .
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                Author and article information

                Contributors
                wolfgang.steinbrecht@dwd.de
                Journal
                Geophys Res Lett
                Geophys Res Lett
                10.1002/(ISSN)1944-8007
                GRL
                Geophysical Research Letters
                John Wiley and Sons Inc. (Hoboken )
                0094-8276
                1944-8007
                26 February 2021
                16 March 2021
                : 48
                : 5 ( doiID: 10.1002/grl.v48.5 )
                : e2020GL091987
                Affiliations
                [ 1 ] Deutscher Wetterdienst Hohenpeißenberg Germany
                [ 2 ] Environment and Climate Change Canada Toronto ONT Canada
                [ 3 ] Alfred Wegener Institut Helmholtz‐Zentrum für Polar‐ und Meeresforschung Potsdam Germany
                [ 4 ] Danish Meteorological Institute Copenhagen Denmark
                [ 5 ] Finnish Meteorological Institute Sodankylä Finland
                [ 6 ] British Meteorological Service Lerwick UK
                [ 7 ] University of Bremen Bremen Germany
                [ 8 ] Institute of Meteorology and Water Management Legionowo Poland
                [ 9 ] Deutscher Wetterdienst Lindenberg Germany
                [ 10 ] Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute DeBilt The Netherlands
                [ 11 ] Met Éireann (Irish Met. Service) Valentia Ireland
                [ 12 ] Royal Meteorological Institute of Belgium Uccle Belgium
                [ 13 ] Karlsruhe Institute of Technology IMK‐IFU Garmisch‐Partenkirchen Germany
                [ 14 ] Institute of Astrophysics and Geophysics University of Liège Liège Belgium
                [ 15 ] Federal Office of Meteorology and Climatology MeteoSwiss Payerne Switzerland
                [ 16 ] LATMOS Sorbonne Université‐UVSQ‐CNRS/INSU Paris France
                [ 17 ] University of Toronto Toronto ONT Canada
                [ 18 ] NOAA ESRL Global Monitoring Laboratory Boulder CO USA
                [ 19 ] Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences (CIRES) University of Colorado Boulder CO USA
                [ 20 ] National Center for Atmospheric Research Boulder CO USA
                [ 21 ] State Meteorological Agency (AEMET) Madrid Spain
                [ 22 ] Meteorological Research Institute Tsukuba Japan
                [ 23 ] Jet Propulsion Laboratory California Institute of Technology Table Mountain Facility Wrightwood CA USA
                [ 24 ] Izaña Atmospheric Research Center AEMET Tenerife Spain
                [ 25 ] Karlsruhe Institute of Technology IMK‐ASF Karlsruhe Germany
                [ 26 ] Bureau of Meteorology Melbourne Australia
                [ 27 ] Centre for Atmospheric Chemistry University of Wollongong Wollongong Australia
                [ 28 ] National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research Lauder New Zealand
                [ 29 ] NASA Goddard Space Flight Center Earth Sciences Division Greenbelt MD USA
                [ 30 ] Universities Space Research Association Columbia MD USA
                [ 31 ] Earth System Science Interdisciplinary Center University of Maryland College Park MD USA
                [ 32 ] European Centre for Medium‐Range Weather Forecasts Reading UK
                [ 33 ] NOAA Chemical Sciences Laboratory Boulder CO USA
                Author notes
                [*] [* ] Correspondence to:

                W. Steinbrecht,

                wolfgang.steinbrecht@ 123456dwd.de

                Author information
                https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0680-6729
                https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5467-9309
                https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9869-0692
                https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7409-1556
                https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1937-5051
                https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8828-2759
                https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7191-6911
                https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3324-885X
                https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8995-852X
                https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3320-7027
                https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1369-8853
                https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5807-6241
                https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8169-9631
                https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3903-3040
                https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2019-2308
                https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9947-1053
                https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7268-9957
                https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8723-6280
                https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5352-1369
                https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4269-1677
                https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6153-5610
                https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1156-4138
                https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0111-2368
                https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8792-2486
                https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7511-4577
                https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8583-7795
                https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7829-0920
                https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1577-5143
                https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5812-3183
                https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7391-1161
                Article
                GRL61988 2020GL091987
                10.1029/2020GL091987
                7995013
                54c120f8-f91e-4250-ba6c-61dd0ec8fba0
                © 2021. The Authors.

                This is an open access article under the terms of the http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

                History
                : 28 January 2021
                : 04 December 2020
                : 03 February 2021
                Page count
                Figures: 5, Tables: 1, Pages: 11, Words: 7079
                Funding
                Funded by: NASA | Earth Sciences Division (NASA Earth Science Division) , open-funder-registry 10.13039/100014573;
                Award ID: 80NM0018D004
                Funded by: Gouvernement du Canada | Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) , open-funder-registry 10.13039/501100000038;
                Award ID: CREATE
                Funded by: Australian Research Council
                Award ID: DP160101598
                Funded by: Fonds De La Recherche Scientifique ‐ FNRS (FNRS) , open-funder-registry 10.13039/501100002661;
                Award ID: J.0147.18
                Funded by: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) , open-funder-registry 10.13039/501100001659;
                Award ID: TRR 172 ‐ Project Number 268020496
                Funded by: Bundesministerium für Wirtschaft und Energie (BMWi) , open-funder-registry 10.13039/501100006360;
                Award ID: 50EE1711 A/B/C
                Funded by: NASA | Earth Sciences Division (NASA Earth Science Division) , open-funder-registry 10.13039/100014573;
                Award ID: UACO
                Categories
                The COVID‐19 pandemic: linking health, society and environment
                Atmospheric Composition and Structure
                Pollution: Urban and Regional
                Troposphere: Composition and Chemistry
                Atmospheric Composition and Structure
                Aerosols and Particles
                Biogeosciences
                Biogeochemical Kinetics and Reaction Modeling
                Biogeochemical Cycles, Processes, and Modeling
                Pollution: Urban, Regional and Global
                Urban Systems
                Cryosphere
                Biogeochemistry
                Global Change
                Biogeochemical Cycles, Processes, and Modeling
                Oceanography: General
                Marine Pollution
                Natural Hazards
                Megacities and Urban Environment
                Oceanography: Biological and Chemical
                Aerosols
                Biogeochemical Cycles, Processes, and Modeling
                Paleoceanography
                Aerosols
                Biogeochemical Cycles, Processes, and Modeling
                Research Letter
                Research Letter
                Atmospheric Science
                Custom metadata
                2.0
                16 March 2021
                Converter:WILEY_ML3GV2_TO_JATSPMC version:5.9.9 mode:remove_FC converted:26.03.2021

                covid‐19,emissions,ozone,troposphere
                covid‐19, emissions, ozone, troposphere

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