Impact of 2020 COVID-19 lockdowns on particulate air pollution across Europe

0582339 - ÚCHP 2024 RIV DE eng J - Journal Article
Putaud, J.-P. - Pisoni, E. - Mangold, A. - Hueglin, Ch. - Sciare, J. - Pikridas, M. - Savvides, Ch. - Ondráček, Jakub - Mbengue, Saliou - Wiedensohler, A. - Weinhold, K. - Merkel, M. - Poulain, L. - van Pinxteren, D. - Herrmann, H. - Massling, A. - Nordstroem, C. - Alastuey, A. - Reche, C. - Pérez, N. - Castillo, S. - Sorribas, M. - Adame, J.A. - Petäja, T. - Lehtipalo, K. - Niemi, J. - Riffault, V. - De Brito, J.F. - Colette, A. - Favez, O. - Petit, J.-E. - Gros, V. - Gini, M.I. - Vratolis, S. - Eleftheriadis, K. - Diapouli, E. - van der Gon, H.D. - Yttri, K.E. - Aas, W.
Impact of 2020 COVID-19 lockdowns on particulate air pollution across Europe.
Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics. Roč. 23, č. 17 (2023), s. 10145-10161. ISSN 1680-7316. E-ISSN 1680-7324
EU Projects: European Commission(XE) 654109 - ACTRIS-2; European Commission(XE) 871115 - ACTRIS IMP
Institutional support: RVO:67985858 ; RVO:86652079
Keywords : atmospheric pollution * concentration (composition) * COVID-19
OECD category: Meteorology and atmospheric sciences; Meteorology and atmospheric sciences (UEK-B)
Impact factor: 6.3, year: 2022
Method of publishing: Open access
https://acp.copernicus.org/articles/23/10145/2023/acp-23-10145-2023.pdf

To fight against the first wave of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) in 2020, lockdown measureswere implemented in most European countries. These lockdowns had well-documented effects on human mobility. We assessed the impact of the lockdown implementation and relaxation on air pollution by comparing daily particulate matter (PM), nitrogen dioxide (NO2) and ozone (O3) concentrations, as well as particle number size distributions (PNSDs) and particle light absorption coefficient in situ measurement data, with values that would have been expected if no COVID-19 epidemic had occurred at 28 sites across Europe for the period 17 February–31 May 2020. Expected PM, NO2 and O3 concentrations were calculated from the 2020 Copernicus Atmosphere
Monitoring Service (CAMS) ensemble forecasts, combined with 2019 CAMS ensemble forecasts and measurement data. On average, lockdown implementations did not lead to a decrease in PM2.5 mass concentrations aturban sites, while relaxations resulted in a +26 ± 21 % rebound. The impacts of lockdown implementation andrelaxation on NO2 concentrations were more consistent (−29 ± 17 and +31 ± 30 %, respectively). The implementation of the lockdown measures also induced statistically significant increases in O3 concentrations at half of all sites (+13 % on average). An enhanced oxidising capacity of the atmosphere could have boosted the production of secondary aerosol at those places. By comparison with 2017–2019 measurement data, a significant
change in the relative contributions of wood and fossil fuel burning to the concentration of black carbon during the lockdown was detected at 7 out of 14 sites. The contribution of particles smaller than 70 nm to the total number of particles significantly also changed at most of the urban sites, with a mean decrease of −7 ± 5 % coinciding with the lockdown implementation. Our study shows that the response of PM2.5 and PM10 mass concentrations to lockdown measures was not systematic at various sites across Europe for multiple reasons, the relationship between road traffic intensity and particulate air pollution being more complex than expected.
Permanent Link: https://hdl.handle.net/11104/0350464