Articles | Volume 23, issue 18
https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-10439-2023
https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-10439-2023
Research article
 | 
21 Sep 2023
Research article |  | 21 Sep 2023

Air pollution reductions caused by the COVID-19 lockdown open up a way to preserve the Himalayan glaciers

Suvarna Fadnavis, Bernd Heinold, T. P. Sabin, Anne Kubin, Katty Huang, Alexandru Rap, and Rolf Müller

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Cited articles

Bair, E., Stillinger, T., Rittger, K., and Skiles, M.: COVID-19 lockdowns show reduced pollution on snow and ice in the Indus River Basin, P. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA, 118, 19–21, https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2101174118, 2021. 
Bolch, T., Shea, J. M., Liu, S., Azam, M. F., Gao, Y., Gruber, S., Immerzeel, W. W., Kulkarni, A. V., Li, H., Tahir, A. A., Zhang, G., and Zhang, Y.: Status and Change of the Cryosphere in the Extended Hindu Kush Himalaya Region, in: The Hindu Kush Himalaya Assessment: Mountains, Climate Change, Sustainability and People, edited by: Wester, P., Mishra, A., Mukherji, A., and Shrestha, A. B., Springer International Publishing, 209–255, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-92288-1_7, 2019. 
Cruz, R. V., Harasawa, H., Lal, M., Wu, S, Anokhin, Y., Punsalmaa, B., Honda, Y., Jafari, M., Li, C., and Huu, N.: Climate change 2001: impacts, adaptation, and vulnerability, Choice Rev. Online, 39, 3433–3433, 2007. 
Fadnavis, S. S.: Model simulation to study Air pollution over Himalayas, Zenodo [data set], https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.6783077, 2022. 
Fadnavis, S., Kalita, G., Kumar, K. R., Gasparini, B., and Li, J.-L. F.: Potential impact of carbonaceous aerosol on the upper troposphere and lower stratosphere (UTLS) and precipitation during Asian summer monsoon in a global model simulation, Atmos. Chem. Phys., 17, 11637–11654, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-17-11637-2017, 2017. 
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The influence of the COVID-19 lockdown on the Himalayas caused increases in snow cover and a decrease in runoff, ultimately leading to an enhanced snow water equivalent. Our findings highlight that, out of the two processes causing a retreat of Himalayan glaciers – (1) slow response to global climate change and (2) fast response to local air pollution – a policy action on the latter is more likely to be within the reach of possible policy action to help billions of people in southern Asia.
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