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Coronavirus: How lockdowns have caused drop in air pollution across the world
Air pollution appears to have decreased in urban areas across the world as cities continue to be locked down to prevent the spread of coronavirus.
In Europe, cities including Brussels, Paris, Madrid, Milan and Frankfurt showed a reduction in average levels of noxious nitrogen dioxide from 5 to 25 March, compared with the same period last year, according to new satellite images.
The images, released by the European Space Agency, show the changing density of nitrogen dioxide, a harmful gas emitted when fossil fuels are burnt at high temperatures, most commonly at power plants and in motor vehicles.
Daily weather events can influence atmospheric pollution, so the satellite pictures took a 20-day average and excluded readings where cloud cover reduced the quality of the data.
However, some scientists have urged caution, with specialists from Lombardy’s Regional Environmental Protection Agency (ARPA) saying it is too soon to draw conclusions from air quality data.
Drops in pollution levels were particularly prominent in the city of Wuhan, the original epicentre of the COVID-19 outbreak.
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