The Signature of the Coronavirus Lockdown in Air Pollution in Greece

Costas Varotsos; John Christodoulakis; George A Kouremadas; Eleni-Foteini Fotaki

doi:10.1007/s11270-021-05055-w

The Signature of the Coronavirus Lockdown in Air Pollution in Greece

Water Air Soil Pollut. 2021;232(3):119. doi: 10.1007/s11270-021-05055-w. Epub 2021 Mar 9.

Authors

Costas Varotsos¹, John Christodoulakis¹, George A Kouremadas¹, Eleni-Foteini Fotaki¹

Affiliation

¹ Climate Research Group, Division of Environmental Physics and Meteorology, Faculty of Physics, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, University Campus Bldg. Phys. V, 15784 Athens, Greece.

Abstract

The change in atmospheric pollution from a public lockdown in Greece introduced to curb the spread of the COVID-19 is examined based on ground-based and satellite observations. The results showed that in most cases, the change in atmospheric pollution is not statistically significant. It is probably an artifact of the meteorological conditions that contributed significantly to the long-range transport of air pollutants over Greece during the shutdown period.

Keywords: Air pollution; COVID-19; Greece; Ground-based data; Satellite observations.