The role of emission reductions and the meteorological situation for air quality improvements during the COVID-19 lockdown period in central Europe

Matthias, Volker; Quante, Markus; Arndt, Jan A.; Badeke, Ronny; Fink, Lea; Petrik, Ronny; Feldner, Josefine; Schwarzkopf, Daniel; Link, Eliza-Maria; Ramacher, Martin O. P.; Wedemann, Ralf

doi:https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-13931-2021

Articles | Volume 21, issue 18

https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-13931-2021

© Author(s) 2021. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-13931-2021

© Author(s) 2021. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Articles | Volume 21, issue 18

Research article

|

21 Sep 2021

Research article |

| 21 Sep 2021

The role of emission reductions and the meteorological situation for air quality improvements during the COVID-19 lockdown period in central Europe

Volker Matthias, Markus Quante, Jan A. Arndt, Ronny Badeke, Lea Fink, Ronny Petrik, Josefine Feldner, Daniel Schwarzkopf, Eliza-Maria Link, Martin O. P. Ramacher, and Ralf Wedemann

Model code and software

CMAQ (5.2) US EPA Office of Research and Development https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.1167892

Short summary

COVID-19 lockdown measures in spring 2020 led to cleaner air in central Europe. Densely populated areas benefitted mainly from largely reduced NO₂ concentrations, while rural areas experienced lower reductions in NO₂ but also lower ozone concentrations. Very low particulate matter (PM) concentrations in parts of Europe were not an effect of lockdown measures. Model simulations show that modified weather conditions are more significant for ozone and PM than severe traffic emission reductions.