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Newsflash Reading, 11/06/2020

With European countries easing lockdown restrictions due to the declining infection rates of Covid-19, the Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service (CAMS), implemented by ECMWF on behalf of the European Commission, is not yet detecting clear signal of increase of pollutants levels and of return to “business as usual” conditions. This is at variance with China, for instance, where activities and emissions have already largely resumed to pre-COVID levels. 

“Between January and April, we have seen a decrease in pollutants like NO2, and to a lower extent PM2.5 and PM10, in many European areas that coincided with the introduction of strict lockdown measures in those countries due to Covid-19,” comments Mark Parrington, Senior Scientist at CAMS. “Now, we are expecting to see some increase again as lockdown measures are loosened, but it is not apparent yet in our data. There are large variations in surface concentrations of pollutants, due to factors like weather and it remains challenging to detect changes in pollutants concentrations. Natural sources of pollutants have not been affected by the lockdown measures and Italy and the Southeast of Europe has been experiencing episodes of increased air pollution due to dust clouds from the Sahara in May.”

“There are differences in the way lockdown and easing of lockdown manifests itself between different parts of the world. In Europe, the easing of lockdown measures currently appears to be cautious and progressive, which means ongoing reduced commuting and business-related transport to take just one example”, adds Vincent-Henri Peuch, Director of CAMS. “This is very important because some of the health benefits, which we have experienced during the lockdown period from improved air pollution, could be kept permanently. Certain pollutant emissions reduction objectives, that may have appeared previously as too ambitious or even counter-productive, can now be targeted with confidence and backed with evidence. With combined efforts, like those proposed in the European Green Deal initiative, we can make a change.”

To provide more air quality information in support of the COVID-19 crisis, CAMS is hosting a microsite with many different information services. Next to maps, time series and animations of nitrogen dioxide (NO2) and fine particulate matter (PM2.5) for 50 major European cities, CAMS now added also PM10 and ozone to give a more comprehensive picture. The regional maps are updated daily and 2017-2019 averages were added in the time series to improve comparability. In order to assess the expected impact of the estimated emission changes induced by lockdown measures on European air quality, an emission scenario visualization tool was added as well.

The microsite is a useful tool to track air quality and shows that Southern Europe, especially Italy and the Southeast of Europe, has been experiencing some significant temporary increases to local air pollution early in the month of May. However, these are not related to the loosening of COVID-19 measures, but due to dust blown across the Mediterranean from the Sahara. Dust particles like these contribute to a reduction in air quality and show up quite clearly in the PM2.5 and PM10 time series plots for different cities. These increases are not related COVID-19 measures and demonstrate how weather events can affect air quality.

Top: The CAMS PM10 daily mean analysis for Rome shows a clear rise of the pollutant after 8 May 2020, resulting from Saharan dust clouds over Southeast Europe (Bottom image. PM10 with diameter smaller than 10 micrometres on 16 May 2020). Credit: Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service, ECMWF

Aside from the microsite, the Monthly Climate Explorer for COVID-19 app of the Copernicus Climate Change Service C3S has been updated with new features. The application in C3S´ freely accessible Climate Data Store (CDS) demonstrates the possibilities that Copernicus data offers to researchers like epidemiologists and health experts, among others. Next to historical data on temperature, humidity, and UV radiation at ground level, the app now includes also climatology of particulate matter (PM10) and nitrogen dioxide (NO2).

The Monthly Climate Explorer for COVID-19 can be accessed here: https://cds.climate.copernicus.eu/apps/c3s/app-c3s-monthly-climate-covid-19-explorer

More air quality information in support of the COVID-19 crisis, you can find here: https://atmosphere.copernicus.eu/european-air-quality-information-support-covid-19-crisis

Notes to Editors:

Copernicus is the European Union’s flagship Earth observation which operates through six thematic services: Atmosphere, Marine, Land, Climate Change, Security and Emergency. It delivers freely accessible operational data and services providing users with reliable and up-to-date information related to our planet and its environment. The Programme is coordinated and managed by the European Commission and implemented in partnership with the Member States, the European Space Agency (ESA), the European Organisation for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites (EUMETSAT), the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF), EU Agencies and Mercator Océan, amongst others.

ECMWF operates two services from the EU’s Copernicus Earth observation programme: the Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service (CAMS) and the Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S). They also contribute to the Copernicus Emergency Management Service (CEMS). The European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) is an independent intergovernmental organisation supported by 34 states. It is both a research institute and a 24/7 operational service, producing and disseminating numerical weather predictions to its Member States. This data is fully available to the national meteorological services in the Member States. The supercomputer facility (and associated data archive) at ECMWF is one of the largest of its type in Europe and Member States can use 25 % of its capacity for their own purposes.