Articles | Volume 22, issue 21
https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-14243-2022
https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-14243-2022
Research article
 | 
08 Nov 2022
Research article |  | 08 Nov 2022

COVID-19 lockdown emission reductions have the potential to explain over half of the coincident increase in global atmospheric methane

David S. Stevenson, Richard G. Derwent, Oliver Wild, and William J. Collins

Related authors

A dynamical process-based model AMmonia–CLIMate v1.0 (AMCLIM v1.0) for quantifying global agricultural ammonia emissions – Part 1: Land module for simulating emissions from synthetic fertilizer use
Jize Jiang, David S. Stevenson, and Mark A. Sutton
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2024-962,https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2024-962, 2024
Short summary
Evaluation of WRF-Chem-simulated meteorology and aerosols over northern India during the severe pollution episode of 2016
Prerita Agarwal, David S. Stevenson, and Mathew R. Heal
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 24, 2239–2266, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-2239-2024,https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-2239-2024, 2024
Short summary
Global sensitivities of reactive N and S gas and particle concentrations and deposition to precursor emissions reductions
Yao Ge, Massimo Vieno, David S. Stevenson, Peter Wind, and Mathew R. Heal
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 23, 6083–6112, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-6083-2023,https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-6083-2023, 2023
Short summary
A new assessment of global and regional budgets, fluxes, and lifetimes of atmospheric reactive N and S gases and aerosols
Yao Ge, Massimo Vieno, David S. Stevenson, Peter Wind, and Mathew R. Heal
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 22, 8343–8368, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-8343-2022,https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-8343-2022, 2022
Short summary
Evaluation of global EMEP MSC-W (rv4.34) WRF (v3.9.1.1) model surface concentrations and wet deposition of reactive N and S with measurements
Yao Ge, Mathew R. Heal, David S. Stevenson, Peter Wind, and Massimo Vieno
Geosci. Model Dev., 14, 7021–7046, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-14-7021-2021,https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-14-7021-2021, 2021
Short summary

Related subject area

Subject: Gases | Research Activity: Atmospheric Modelling and Data Analysis | Altitude Range: Troposphere | Science Focus: Chemistry (chemical composition and reactions)
CO anthropogenic emissions in Europe from 2011 to 2021: insights from Measurement of Pollution in the Troposphere (MOPITT) satellite data
Audrey Fortems-Cheiney, Gregoire Broquet, Elise Potier, Robin Plauchu, Antoine Berchet, Isabelle Pison, Hugo Denier van der Gon, and Stijn Dellaert
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 24, 4635–4649, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-4635-2024,https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-4635-2024, 2024
Short summary
Constraining long-term NOx emissions over the United States and Europe using nitrate wet deposition monitoring networks
Amy Christiansen, Loretta J. Mickley, and Lu Hu
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 24, 4569–4589, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-4569-2024,https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-4569-2024, 2024
Short summary
Analysis of an intense O3 pollution episode on the Atlantic coast of the Iberian Peninsula using photochemical modeling: characterization of transport pathways and accumulation processes
Eduardo Torre-Pascual, Gotzon Gangoiti, Ana Rodríguez-García, Estibaliz Sáez de Cámara, Joana Ferreira, Carla Gama, María Carmen Gómez, Iñaki Zuazo, Jose Antonio García, and Maite de Blas
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 24, 4305–4329, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-4305-2024,https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-4305-2024, 2024
Short summary
Atmospheric oxygen as a tracer for fossil fuel carbon dioxide: a sensitivity study in the UK
Hannah Chawner, Eric Saboya, Karina E. Adcock, Tim Arnold, Yuri Artioli, Caroline Dylag, Grant L. Forster, Anita Ganesan, Heather Graven, Gennadi Lessin, Peter Levy, Ingrid T. Luijkx, Alistair Manning, Penelope A. Pickers, Chris Rennick, Christian Rödenbeck, and Matthew Rigby
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 24, 4231–4252, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-4231-2024,https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-4231-2024, 2024
Short summary
MIXv2: a long-term mosaic emission inventory for Asia (2010–2017)
Meng Li, Junichi Kurokawa, Qiang Zhang, Jung-Hun Woo, Tazuko Morikawa, Satoru Chatani, Zifeng Lu, Yu Song, Guannan Geng, Hanwen Hu, Jinseok Kim, Owen R. Cooper, and Brian C. McDonald
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 24, 3925–3952, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-3925-2024,https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-3925-2024, 2024
Short summary

Cited articles

Bauwens, M., Compernolle, S., Stavrakou, T., Müller, J.-F., van Gent, J., Eskes, H., Levelt, P. F., van der A, R., Veefkind, J. P., Vlietinck, J., Yu, H., and Zehner, C.: Impact of coronavirus outbreak on NO2 pollution assessed using TROPOMI and OMI observations, Geophys. Res. Lett., 47, e2020GL087978, https://doi.org/10.1029/2020GL087978, 2020. 
Cooper, M. J., Martin, R. V., Hammer, M. S., Levelt, P. F., Veefkind, P., Lamsal, L. N., Krotkov, N. A., Brook, J. R., and McLinden, C. A.: Global fine-scale changes in ambient NO2 during COVID-19 lockdowns, Nature, 601, 380–387, https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-021-04229-0, 2022. 
Derwent, R. G., Collins, W. J., Johnson, C. E., and Stevenson, D. S.: Transient Behaviour of Tropospheric Ozone Precursors in a Global 3-D CTM and Their Indirect Greenhouse Effects, Clim. Change, 49, 463–487, https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1010648913655, 2001. 
Dlugokencky, E.: NOAA/GML Trends in Atmospheric Methane, https://gml.noaa.gov/ccgg/trends_ch4/, last access: 16 September 2022. 
Doumbia, T., Granier, C., Elguindi, N., Bouarar, I., Darras, S., Brasseur, G., Gaubert, B., Liu, Y., Shi, X., Stavrakou, T., Tilmes, S., Lacey, F., Deroubaix, A., and Wang, T.: Changes in global air pollutant emissions during the COVID-19 pandemic: a dataset for atmospheric modeling, Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 13, 4191–4206, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-13-4191-2021, 2021. 
Download
Short summary
Atmospheric methane’s growth rate rose by 50 % in 2020 relative to 2019. Lower nitrogen oxide (NOx) emissions tend to increase methane’s atmospheric residence time; lower carbon monoxide (CO) and non-methane volatile organic compound (NMVOC) emissions decrease its lifetime. Combining model sensitivities with emission changes, we find that COVID-19 lockdown emission reductions can explain over half the observed increases in methane in 2020.
Altmetrics
Final-revised paper
Preprint