A048-01
Measurements and models of COVID-19 impacts on short-lived pollutants and greenhouse gases over the eastern US

Tuesday, 8 December 2020: 10:30
Virtual
Russell R Dickerson1, Xinrong Ren2, Ross J Salawitch1, Timothy Canty3, Hao He4, Doyeon Ahn5, Philip Stratton3, Dolly L Hall3, Ning Zeng6, Joel Dreessen7, Israel Lopez-Coto8, Anna Karion8, James R Whetstone8, Colm Sweeney9, Ariel F Stein10, Winston T Luke11, Eric A Kort12, Paul Shepson13 and Brian C McDonald14, (1)University of Maryland, AOSC and Chemistry, College Park, MD, United States, (2)NOAA Science Center, College Park, MD, United States, (3)University of Maryland, College Park, MD, United States, (4)University of Maryland College Park, Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Science, College Park, MD, United States, (5)University of Maryland College Park, College Park, MD, United States, (6)University of Maryland, Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Science, College Park, United States, (7)Maryland Department of the Environment, Air Monitoring Program, Baltimore, MD, United States, (8)National Institute of Standards and Technology Gaithersburg, Gaithersburg, MD, United States, (9)NOAA Global Monitoring Laboratory, Boulder, CO, United States, (10)NOAA Air Resources Laboratory, College Park, MD, United States, (11)NOAA-Air Resources Lab, Silver Spring, MD, United States, (12)University of Michigan Ann Arbor, Climate and Space Sciences and Engineering, Ann Arbor, MI, United States, (13)Stony Brook University, School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences, Stony Brook, NY, United States, (14)Chemical Sciences Division, NOAA Earth System Research Laboratory, Boulder, CO, United States
Recorded Presentation
Abstract:
When the COVID-19 pandemic struck, and governments began to restrict travel and take other action to slow the spread of the virus, several research groups in the eastern US were well prepared to measure the impact on emissions and air quality. Universities as well as State and Federal agencies acted quickly to enhance surface-based measurements and deploy instrumented research aircraft to quantify improvements in emissions, determine causes, and observe impacts on air quality. The study ranged from Virginia to Massachusetts, focusing on the Baltimore-Washington and New York City urban areas. Results are intended to provide policy-relevant information to help guide regulatory actions such as State Implementation Plans to attain air quality standards, and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions reduction mandates. Traffic monitors, existing air pollution stations near urban areas, an array of instrumented tall towers, and Continuous Emissions Monitors (CEMs) on major stationary sources provide essentially uninterrupted measurements. Research aircraft took three-dimensional snapshots of meteorological variables, GHGs, aerosol optical properties, and photochemical smog pollutants (O3, NO, NO2, NOy, SO2, CO, HCHO, and VOC’s). Fluxes are determined by mass balance methods, ratios among species, and model inversions. Concentrations and inferred emissions were followed from early 2020 prior to lockdown, at the height of restrictions when for example car traffic fell to about half of normal, and during the return toward typical operations. To help correct for seasonal and weather effects, pandemic-induced changes can also be quantified by examining prior years. Substantial decreases in CO, CO2, and NOy were clear. Preliminary results show a dramatic drop in ozone in the Baltimore-Washington area, but not in the NYC area; chemical transport models are being used to investigate this nonlinear process. This talk aims to summarize field experiments, show initial results, and draw preliminary conclusions on, for example what might be achieved if half the passenger fleet were converted to zero emission vehicles.
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