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Local Anomalies in the Column‐Averaged Dry Air Mole Fractions of Carbon Dioxide Across the Globe During the First Months of the Coronavirus Recession
Author(s) -
Chevallier Frédéric,
Zheng Bo,
Broquet Grégoire,
Ciais Philippe,
Liu Zhu,
Davis Steven J.,
Deng Zhu,
Wang Yilong,
Bréon FrançoisMarie,
O'Dell Christopher W.
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
geophysical research letters
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.007
H-Index - 273
eISSN - 1944-8007
pISSN - 0094-8276
DOI - 10.1029/2020gl090244
Subject(s) - environmental science , column (typography) , satellite , carbon dioxide , meteorology , climatology , atmospheric sciences , recession , covid-19 , air quality index , cloud computing , geography , geology , chemistry , computer science , medicine , telecommunications , disease , organic chemistry , pathology , frame (networking) , keynesian economics , engineering , economics , infectious disease (medical specialty) , aerospace engineering , operating system
We use a global transport model and satellite retrievals of the carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) column average to explore the impact of CO 2 emissions reductions that occurred during the economic downturn at the start of the Covid‐19 pandemic. The changes in the column averages are substantial in a few places of the model global grid, but the induced gradients are most often less than the random errors of the retrievals. The current necessity to restrict the quality‐assured column retrievals to almost cloud‐free areas appears to be a major obstacle in identifying changes in CO 2 emissions. Indeed, large changes have occurred in the presence of clouds, and in places that were cloud free in 2020, the comparison with previous years is hampered by different cloud conditions during these years. We therefore recommend to favor all‐weather CO 2 monitoring systems, at least in situ, to support international efforts to reduce emissions.