NASA Satellite Measurements Show Global-scale Reductions in Free Tropospheric Ozone in 2020 and Again in 2021 During COVID-19

• Published in: Geophysical research letters Vol. 49; no. 15; pp. e2022GL098712 - n/a
• Main Authors: Ziemke, Jerry R, Kramarova, Natalya A, Frith, Stacey M, Huang, Liang-Kang, Haffner, David P, Wargan, Krzysztof, Lamsal, Lok N, Labow, Gordon J, McPeters, Richard D, Bhartia, Pawan K
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Goddard Space Flight Center Wiley 16.08.2022; John Wiley & Sons, Inc; John Wiley and Sons Inc
• Subjects: Anomalies; Anthropogenic factors; Atmospheric Composition and Structure; Atmospheric Science; Constituent Sources and Sinks; Coronaviruses; COVID-19; Earth Resources And Remote Sensing; Emission measurements; Environment Pollution; Geosciences (General); Human influences; Meteorology And Climatology; Nitrogen dioxide; Northern Hemisphere; Ozone; Pandemics; Pollutants; Pollution; Pollution control; Research Letter; Satellite data; Satellites; Southern Hemisphere; Spring; Summer; Temperature; Troposphere; Tropospheric ozone; Viral diseases; Tropospheric Ozone; Pollution; Satellite Retrieval; Covid-19
• ISSN: 0094-8276; 1944-8007
• DOI: 10.1029/2022GL098712

NASA satellite measurements show that ozone reductions throughout the Northern Hemisphere (NH) free troposphere reported for spring-summer 2020 during the Corona VIrus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic have occurred again in spring-summer 2021. The satellite measurements show that tropospheric column ozone (TCO) (mostly representative of the free troposphere) for 20oN-60oN during spring-summer for both 2020 and 2021 averaged ~3 Dobson Units (DU) (or ~7-8%) below normal. These ozone reductions in 2020 and 2021 were the lowest in the 2005- 2021 record. We also include satellite measurements of tropospheric NO2that exhibit reductions of ~10-20% in the NH in early spring-to-summer 2020 and 2021, suggesting that reduced pollution was the main cause for the low anomalies in NH TCO in 2020 and 2021. Reductions of TCO ~2DU (7 %) are also measured in the Southern Hemisphere in austral summer but are 26not associated with reduced NO2.