Ozone anomalies in the free troposphere during the COVID-19 pandemic

Bouarar, Idir; Gaubert, Benjamin; Brasseur, Guy P.; Steinbrecht, Wolfgang; Doumbia, Thierno; Tilmes, Simone; Liu, Yiming; Stavrakou, Trissevgeni; Deroubaix, Adrien; Darras, Sabine; Granier, Claire; Lacey, Forrest; Müller, Jean‐François; Shi, Xiaoqin; Elguindi, Nellie; Wang, Tao

doi:10.1029/2021GL094204

i

Ozone anomalies in the free troposphere during the COVID-19 pandemic

2021
By Bouarar, Idir ; Gaubert, Benjamin ; Brasseur, Guy P.
Source Geophysical Research Letters, 48, e2021GL094204

Details

Journal Title:

Geophysical Research Letters
Personal Author:

Bouarar, Idir ; Gaubert, Benjamin ; Brasseur, Guy P. ; Steinbrecht, Wolfgang ; Doumbia, Thierno ; Tilmes, Simone ; Liu, Yiming ; Stavrakou, Trissevgeni ; Deroubaix, Adrien ; Darras, Sabine ; Granier, Claire ; Lacey, Forrest ; Müller, Jean‐François ; Shi, Xiaoqin ; Elguindi, Nellie ; Wang, Tao
NOAA Program & Office:

OAR (Oceanic and Atmospheric Research) ; CSL (Chemical Sciences Laboratory) ; CIRES (Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences)
Description:

Using the CAM-chem Model, we simulate the response of chemical species in the free troposphere to scenarios of primary pollutant emission reductions during the COVID-19 pandemic. Zonally averaged ozone in the free troposphere during Northern Hemisphere spring and summer is found to be 5%–15% lower than 19-yr climatological values, in good agreement with observations. About one third of this anomaly is attributed to the reduction scenario of air traffic during the pandemic, another third to the reduction scenario of surface emissions, the remainder to 2020 meteorological conditions, including the exceptional springtime Arctic stratospheric ozone depletion. For the combined emission reductions, the overall COVID-19 reduction in northern hemisphere tropospheric ozone in June is less than 5 ppb below 400 hPa, but reaches 8 ppb at 250 hPa. In the Southern Hemisphere, COVID-19 related ozone reductions by 4%–6% were masked by comparable ozone increases due to other changes in 2020.
Source:

Geophysical Research Letters, 48, e2021GL094204
DOI:

https://doi.org/10.1029/2021GL094204
Document Type:

Journal Article
Rights Information:

CC BY-NC
Compliance:

Submitted
Download URL:

https://repository.library.noaa.gov/view/noaa/40168/noaa_40168_DS1.pdf
File Type:

[PDF - 4.72 MB]
Collection(s):

Office of Oceanic and Atmospheric Research (OAR) ; NOAA Cooperative Institutes
Main Document Checksum:

urn:sha256:7036c670120f586a312afcc66e7dbd47791db365c7eda0429a23e3ef03cd4895

ON THIS PAGE

Details

Found an issue?

Send us an email at:

publishinghd@cdc.gov

The NOAA IR serves as an archival repository of NOAA-published products including scientific findings, journal articles, guidelines, recommendations, or other information authored or co-authored by NOAA or funded partners. As a repository, the NOAA IR retains documents in their original published format to ensure public access to scientific information.