How have surface NO2 concentrations changed as a result of the UK's COVID-19 travel restrictions?

doi:10.1088/1748-9326/abb6a2

	How have surface NO2 concentrations changed as a result of the UK's COVID-19 travel restrictions?
	Dacre, H. F.1; Mortimer, A. H.2; Neal, L. S.3
	2020-10
发表期刊	ENVIRONMENTAL RESEARCH LETTERS
ISSN	1748-9326
摘要	Restrictions as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic have led to fewer vehicles on UK roads. Since fuel combustion is responsible for a large fraction of UK emissions it is expected that surface NO2 concentrations would reduce as a result. However, over parts of the UK, surface NO2 concentrations have increased following the implementation of travel restrictions. NO2 measurements from 142 Automatic Urban and Rural Network sites are combined with meteorological data from the Met Office high-resolution weather prediction model to build site specific models. These models predict NO2 concentrations given no change in emissions. It is found that both meteorological and emission changes contribute to the observed changes in NO2 concentrations. Given no change in emissions, changes in meteorology between pre- and post-lockdown periods would have led to a mean increase in NO2 concentrations of +6%. Conversely, changes in emissions would have led to a mean reduction in NO2 concentrations of -18%, resulting in the observed total change in NO2 concentrations of -12%. However at some sites the reduction in emissions is smaller than the increase in NO2 concentrations due to meteorology. The largest increases associated with changes in the meteorology are seen at rural sites (+20%) where NO2 measurements are representative of large areas and thus dominated by the regional advection of secondary NO2 from Europe. Conversely, the largest decreases associated with reduced emissions are found at urban traffic and urban background sites (-27% and -14% respectively) where NO2 concentrations are representative of local areas and thus dominated by local reduction in emissions from vehicles. As lockdown measures are relaxed, NO2 concentrations are likely to return to pre-COVID levels, but these results demonstrate that changes in our behaviour can result in positive impacts on air quality and illustrate the effectiveness of travel-reducing strategies in urban areas.
关键词	air quality COVID-19 atmospheric dispersion
DOI	10.1088/1748-9326/abb6a2
WOS关键词	SYNOPTIC WEATHER REGIMES ; AIR-QUALITY ; MET OFFICE ; URBAN ; MODEL ; EMISSIONS
WOS研究方向	Environmental Sciences & Ecology ; Meteorology & Atmospheric Sciences
WOS类目	Environmental Sciences ; Meteorology & Atmospheric Sciences
出版者	IOP PUBLISHING LTD
引用统计
文献类型	期刊论文
专题	新冠肺炎循证社会科学证据集成
作者单位	1.Univ Reading; 2.Rutherford Appleton Lab; 3.Met Off
推荐引用方式 GB/T 7714	Dacre, H. F.,Mortimer, A. H.,Neal, L. S.. How have surface NO2 concentrations changed as a result of the UK's COVID-19 travel restrictions?[J]. ENVIRONMENTAL RESEARCH LETTERS,2020.
APA	Dacre, H. F.,Mortimer, A. H.,&Neal, L. S..(2020).How have surface NO2 concentrations changed as a result of the UK's COVID-19 travel restrictions?.ENVIRONMENTAL RESEARCH LETTERS.
MLA	Dacre, H. F.,et al."How have surface NO2 concentrations changed as a result of the UK's COVID-19 travel restrictions?".ENVIRONMENTAL RESEARCH LETTERS (2020).

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