Link of the day: Airborne Nitrogen Dioxide Plummets Over China
NASA and European Space Agency (ESA) pollution monitoring satellites have detected significant decreases in nitrogen dioxide (NO2) over China. […]
“This is the first time I have seen such a dramatic drop-off over such a wide area for a specific event,” said Fei Liu, an air quality researcher at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center. Liu recalls seeing a drop in NO2 over several countries during the economic recession that began in 2008, but the decrease was gradual.
This is very interesting. Both in terms of how immediate effects are and also in terms of how large the size of China’s economic slowdown must have been to produce this effect. And even though China managed to contain the Coronairus quite well, this allows to give an estimate of the economic effects the pandemic may have in other countries.