Articles | Volume 21, issue 5
https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-4169-2021
https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-4169-2021
Research article
 | 
18 Mar 2021
Research article |  | 18 Mar 2021

COVID-19 lockdowns highlight a risk of increasing ozone pollution in European urban areas

Stuart K. Grange, James D. Lee, Will S. Drysdale, Alastair C. Lewis, Christoph Hueglin, Lukas Emmenegger, and David C. Carslaw

Related authors

Why is ozone in South Korea and the Seoul metropolitan area so high and increasing?
Nadia K. Colombi, Daniel J. Jacob, Laura Hyesung Yang, Shixian Zhai, Viral Shah, Stuart K. Grange, Robert M. Yantosca, Soontae Kim, and Hong Liao
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 23, 4031–4044, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-4031-2023,https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-4031-2023, 2023
Short summary
Linking Switzerland's PM10 and PM2.5 oxidative potential (OP) with emission sources
Stuart K. Grange, Gaëlle Uzu, Samuël Weber, Jean-Luc Jaffrezo, and Christoph Hueglin
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 22, 7029–7050, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-7029-2022,https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-7029-2022, 2022
Short summary
Cellulose in atmospheric particulate matter at rural and urban sites across France and Switzerland
Adam Brighty, Véronique Jacob, Gaëlle Uzu, Lucille Borlaza, Sébastien Conil, Christoph Hueglin, Stuart K. Grange, Olivier Favez, Cécile Trébuchon, and Jean-Luc Jaffrezo
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 22, 6021–6043, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-6021-2022,https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-6021-2022, 2022
Short summary
Temporal and spatial analysis of ozone concentrations in Europe based on timescale decomposition and a multi-clustering approach
Eirini Boleti, Christoph Hueglin, Stuart K. Grange, André S. H. Prévôt, and Satoshi Takahama
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 20, 9051–9066, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-20-9051-2020,https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-20-9051-2020, 2020
Short summary
Evaluation of equivalent black carbon source apportionment using observations from Switzerland between 2008 and 2018
Stuart K. Grange, Hanspeter Lötscher, Andrea Fischer, Lukas Emmenegger, and Christoph Hueglin
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 13, 1867–1885, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-13-1867-2020,https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-13-1867-2020, 2020
Short summary

Related subject area

Subject: Gases | Research Activity: Atmospheric Modelling and Data Analysis | Altitude Range: Troposphere | Science Focus: Physics (physical properties and processes)
European CH4 inversions with ICON-ART coupled to the CarbonTracker Data Assimilation Shell
Michael Steiner, Wouter Peters, Ingrid Luijkx, Stephan Henne, Huilin Chen, Samuel Hammer, and Dominik Brunner
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 24, 2759–2782, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-2759-2024,https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-2759-2024, 2024
Short summary
Extreme weather exacerbates ozone pollution in the Pearl River Delta, China: role of natural processes
Nan Wang, Hongyue Wang, Xin Huang, Xi Chen, Yu Zou, Tao Deng, Tingyuan Li, Xiaopu Lyu, and Fumo Yang
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 24, 1559–1570, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-1559-2024,https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-1559-2024, 2024
Short summary
Multidecadal ozone trends in China and implications for human health and crop yields: a hybrid approach combining a chemical transport model and machine learning
Jia Mao, Amos P. K. Tai, David H. Y. Yung, Tiangang Yuan, Kong T. Chau, and Zhaozhong Feng
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 24, 345–366, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-345-2024,https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-345-2024, 2024
Short summary
On the influence of vertical mixing, boundary layer schemes, and temporal emission profiles on tropospheric NO2 in WRF-Chem – comparisons to in situ, satellite, and MAX-DOAS observations
Leon Kuhn, Steffen Beirle, Vinod Kumar, Sergey Osipov, Andrea Pozzer, Tim Bösch, Rajesh Kumar, and Thomas Wagner
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 24, 185–217, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-185-2024,https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-185-2024, 2024
Short summary
Decreasing trends of ammonia emissions over Europe seen from remote sensing and inverse modelling
Ondřej Tichý, Sabine Eckhardt, Yves Balkanski, Didier Hauglustaine, and Nikolaos Evangeliou
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 23, 15235–15252, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-15235-2023,https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-15235-2023, 2023
Short summary

Cited articles

Anenberg, S. C., Miller, J., Minjares, R., Du, L., Henze, D. K., Lacey, F., Malley, C. S., Emberson, L., Franco, V., Klimont, Z., and Heyes, C.: Impacts and mitigation of excess diesel-related NOx emissions in 11 major vehicle markets, Nature, 545, 467–471, https://doi.org/10.1038/nature22086, 2017. a
BBC: Coronavirus: Europe now epicentre of the pandemic, says WHO, available at: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-51876784, last access: 13 March 2020. a
Breiman, L.: Random Forests, Mach. Learn., 45, 5–32, https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1010933404324, 2001. a
Carslaw, D.: Blog update on COVID-19 and changes in air pollution, available at: https://ee.ricardo.com/news/blog-update-on-covid-19-and-changes-in-air-pollution (last access: 1 March 2021), 2020. a
Carslaw, D. C., Murrells, T. P., Andersson, J., and Keenan, M.: Have vehicle emissions of primary NO2 peaked?, Faraday Discuss., 189, 439–454, https://doi.org/10.1039/C5FD00162E, 2016. a, b
Download
Short summary
The changes in mobility across Europe due to the COVID-19 lockdowns had consequences for air quality. We compare what was experienced to estimates of "what would have been" without the lockdowns. Nitrogen dioxide (NO2), an important vehicle-sourced pollutant, decreased by a third. However, ozone (O3) increased in response to lower NO2. Because NO2 is decreasing over time, increases in O3 can be expected in European urban areas and will require management to avoid future negative outcomes.
Altmetrics
Final-revised paper
Preprint