COVID-19 Crisis Reduces Free Tropospheric Ozone across the Northern Hemisphere

• Published in: Geophysical Research Letters
• Main Authors: Steinbrecht, Wolfgang, Kubistin, Dagmar, Plass-Dülmer, Christian, Davies, Jonathan, Tarasick, David, W., von Der Gathen, Peter, Deckelmann, Holger, Jepsen, Nis, Kivi, Rigel, Lyall, Norrie, Palm, Matthias, Notholt, Justus, Kois, Bogumil, Oelsner, Peter, Allaart, Marc, Piters, Ankie, Gill, Michael, van Malderen, Roeland, Delcloo, Andy, W., Sussmann, Ralf, Mahieu, Emmanuel, Servais, Christian, Romanens, Gonzague, Stübi, Rene, Ancellet, Gérard, Godin-Beekmann, Sophie, Yamanouchi, Shoma, Strong, Kimberly, Johnson, Bryan, Cullis, Patrick, Petropavlovskikh, Irina, Hannigan, James, W., Hernandez, Jose-Luis, Diaz Rodriguez, Ana, Nakano, Tatsumi, Chouza, Fernando, Leblanc, Thierry, Torres, Carlos, Garcia, Omaira, Röhling, Amelie, N., Schneider, Matthias, Blumenstock, Thomas, Tully, Matt, Paton-Walsh, Clare, Jones, Nicholas, Querel, Richard, Strahan, Susan, Stauffer, Ryan, M., Thompson, Anne, M., Inness, Antje, Engelen, Richard, Chang, Kai-Lan, Cooper, Owen, R.
• Other Authors: Deutscher Wetterdienst Offenbach (DWD), Environment and Climate Change Canada, Alfred-Wegener-Institut, Helmholtz-Zentrum für Polar- und Meeresforschung = Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research = Institut Alfred-Wegener pour la recherche polaire et marine (AWI), Helmholtz-Gemeinschaft = Helmholtz Association, Danish Meteorological Institute (DMI), Finnish Meteorological Institute (FMI), Met Office Lerwick, Universität Bremen, Institute of Meteorology and Water Management - National Research Institute (IMGW - PIB), Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute (KNMI), Irish Meteorological Service (MET ÉIREANN), Institut Royal Météorologique de Belgique Bruxelles - Royal Meteorological Institute of Belgium (IRM), Institut für Meteorologie und Klimaforschung - Atmosphärische Umweltforschung (IMK-IFU), Karlsruher Institut für Technologie (KIT), Institut d'Astrophysique et de Géophysique Liège, Université de Liège, Federal Office of Meteorology and Climatology MeteoSwiss, TROPO - LATMOS, Laboratoire Atmosphères, Milieux, Observations Spatiales (LATMOS), Université de Versailles Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines (UVSQ)-Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Sorbonne Université (SU)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Université de Versailles Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines (UVSQ)-Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Sorbonne Université (SU)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), STRATO - LATMOS, University of Toronto, ESRL Global Monitoring Laboratory Boulder (GML), NOAA Earth System Research Laboratory (ESRL), National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)-National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences (CIRES), University of Colorado Boulder -National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), National Center for Atmospheric Research Boulder (NCAR), Agencia Estatal de Meteorología (AEMet), Meteorological Research Institute Tsukuba (MRI), Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA), Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), NASA-California Institute of Technology (CALTECH), Institut für Meteorologie und Klimaforschung - Atmosphärische Spurengase und Fernerkundung (IMK-ASF), Australian Bureau of Meteorology Melbourne (BoM), Australian Government, University of Wollongong Australia, National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research Lauder (NIWA), GSFC Earth Sciences Division, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC), Earth Science System Interdisciplinary Center College Park (ESSIC), College of Computer, Mathematical, and Natural Sciences College Park, University of Maryland College Park, University of Maryland System-University of Maryland System-University of Maryland College Park, University of Maryland System-University of Maryland System, European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF), NOAA Chemical Sciences Laboratory (CSL), National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: HAL CCSD 2021
• Subjects: Emissions; Troposphere; Ozone; COVID‐19; [PHYS.PHYS.PHYS-AO-PH]Physics [physics]/Physics [physics]/Atmospheric and Oceanic Physics [physics.ao-ph]; [SDU.OCEAN]Sciences of the Universe [physics]/Ocean; Atmosphere; [SDV.MHEP.MI]Life Sciences [q-bio]/Human health and pathology/Infectious diseases; [SDV.MHEP.PSR]Life Sciences [q-bio]/Human health and pathology/Pulmonology and respiratory tract; Arctic; Human health
• Online Access: https://insu.hal.science/insu-03137114; https://insu.hal.science/insu-03137114v2/document; https://insu.hal.science/insu-03137114v2/file/2020GL091987.pdf; https://doi.org/10.1029/2020GL091987

International audience 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 to 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.