Climate impacts of COVID‐19 induced emission changes

The COVID‐19 pandemic led to dramatic changes in economic activity in 2020. We use estimates of emissions changes for 2020 in two Earth System Models (ESMs) to simulate the impacts of the COVID‐19 economic changes. Ensembles of nudged simulations are used to separate small signals from meteorologica...

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Main Authors: Gettelman, A, Lamboll, R, Bardeen, CG, Forster, PM
Format: Journal article
Language:English
Published: Wiley 2021
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author Gettelman, A
Lamboll, R
Bardeen, CG
Forster, PM
author_facet Gettelman, A
Lamboll, R
Bardeen, CG
Forster, PM
author_sort Gettelman, A
collection OXFORD
description The COVID‐19 pandemic led to dramatic changes in economic activity in 2020. We use estimates of emissions changes for 2020 in two Earth System Models (ESMs) to simulate the impacts of the COVID‐19 economic changes. Ensembles of nudged simulations are used to separate small signals from meteorological variability. Reductions in aerosol and precursor emissions, chiefly Black Carbon (BC) and sulfate (SO4), led to reductions in total anthropogenic aerosol cooling through aerosol‐cloud interactions. The average overall Effective Radiative Forcing (ERF) peaks at +0.29±0.15 Wm−2 in spring 2020. Changes in cloud properties are smaller than observed changes during 2020. Impacts of these changes on regional land surface temperature range up to +0.3K. The peak impact of these aerosol changes on global surface temperature is very small (+0.03K). However, the aerosol changes are the largest contribution to radiative forcing and temperature changes as a result of COVID‐19 affected emissions, larger than ozone, CO2 and contrail effects.
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spelling oxford-uuid:1b6f2cd8-3bdb-47d1-8694-2a528b9754632022-03-26T11:00:22ZClimate impacts of COVID‐19 induced emission changesJournal articlehttp://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_dcae04bcuuid:1b6f2cd8-3bdb-47d1-8694-2a528b975463EnglishSymplectic ElementsWiley2021Gettelman, ALamboll, RBardeen, CGForster, PMThe COVID‐19 pandemic led to dramatic changes in economic activity in 2020. We use estimates of emissions changes for 2020 in two Earth System Models (ESMs) to simulate the impacts of the COVID‐19 economic changes. Ensembles of nudged simulations are used to separate small signals from meteorological variability. Reductions in aerosol and precursor emissions, chiefly Black Carbon (BC) and sulfate (SO4), led to reductions in total anthropogenic aerosol cooling through aerosol‐cloud interactions. The average overall Effective Radiative Forcing (ERF) peaks at +0.29±0.15 Wm−2 in spring 2020. Changes in cloud properties are smaller than observed changes during 2020. Impacts of these changes on regional land surface temperature range up to +0.3K. The peak impact of these aerosol changes on global surface temperature is very small (+0.03K). However, the aerosol changes are the largest contribution to radiative forcing and temperature changes as a result of COVID‐19 affected emissions, larger than ozone, CO2 and contrail effects.
spellingShingle Gettelman, A
Lamboll, R
Bardeen, CG
Forster, PM
Climate impacts of COVID‐19 induced emission changes
title Climate impacts of COVID‐19 induced emission changes
title_full Climate impacts of COVID‐19 induced emission changes
title_fullStr Climate impacts of COVID‐19 induced emission changes
title_full_unstemmed Climate impacts of COVID‐19 induced emission changes
title_short Climate impacts of COVID‐19 induced emission changes
title_sort climate impacts of covid 19 induced emission changes
work_keys_str_mv AT gettelmana climateimpactsofcovid19inducedemissionchanges
AT lambollr climateimpactsofcovid19inducedemissionchanges
AT bardeencg climateimpactsofcovid19inducedemissionchanges
AT forsterpm climateimpactsofcovid19inducedemissionchanges