1. Changes in black carbon emissions over Europe due to COVID-19 lockdownsNikolaos Evangeliou, Stephen M. Platt, Sabine Eckhardt, Cathrine Lund Myhre, Paolo Laj, L. Alados-Arboledas, John Backman, Benjamin T. Brem, Markus Fiebig, Jesús Yus-Díez, 2021, original scientific article Abstract: Abstract. Following the emergence of the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus
2 (SARS-CoV-2) responsible for COVID-19 in December 2019 in Wuhan (China)
and its spread to the rest of the world, the World Health Organization
declared a global pandemic in March 2020. Without effective treatment in the
initial pandemic phase, social distancing and mandatory quarantines were
introduced as the only available preventative measure. In contrast to the
detrimental societal impacts, air quality improved in all countries in which
strict lockdowns were applied, due to lower pollutant emissions. Here we
investigate the effects of the COVID-19 lockdowns in Europe on ambient black
carbon (BC), which affects climate and damages health, using in situ
observations from 17 European stations in a Bayesian inversion framework. BC
emissions declined by 23 kt in Europe (20 % in Italy, 40 % in Germany,
34 % in Spain, 22 % in France) during lockdowns compared to the same
period in the previous 5 years, which is partially attributed to COVID-19
measures. BC temporal variation in the countries enduring the most drastic
restrictions showed the most distinct lockdown impacts. Increased particle
light absorption in the beginning of the lockdown, confirmed by assimilated
satellite and remote sensing data, suggests residential combustion was the
dominant BC source. Accordingly, in central and Eastern Europe, which
experienced lower than average temperatures, BC was elevated compared to the
previous 5 years. Nevertheless, an average decrease of 11 % was seen
for the whole of Europe compared to the start of the lockdown period, with
the highest peaks in France (42 %), Germany (21 %), UK (13 %), Spain
(11 %) and Italy (8 %). Such a decrease was not seen in the previous
years, which also confirms the impact of COVID-19 on the European emissions
of BC.
Keywords: black carbon, covid-19, emissions, Europe
Published in RUNG: 13.05.2024; Views: 1572; Downloads: 6
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