Abrupt emission reduction during COVID-19 intensified the spring 2020 rainfall over India

The high level of aerosol pollution in South Asia has a measurable impact on clouds, radiation, and precipitation. Here, exploring multiple observational data sets and simulations of the state-of-the-art ECHAM6-HAMMOZ chemistry-climate model, we report that the reduction in anthropogenic emissions d...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Frontiers in environmental science 2022-08, Vol.10
Main Authors: Asutosh, A., Fadnavis, S., Chavan, Prashant, Sabin, T. P., Müller, Rolf
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
cloud properties
COVID-19
emission reduction
precipitation enhancement
regional climate
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:The high level of aerosol pollution in South Asia has a measurable impact on clouds, radiation, and precipitation. Here, exploring multiple observational data sets and simulations of the state-of-the-art ECHAM6-HAMMOZ chemistry-climate model, we report that the reduction in anthropogenic emissions during the COVID-19 lockdown period has enhanced precipitation by 5–25% over India. This precipitation enhancement is the result of the combined effect of an enhancement in cloud cover, a reduction in aerosol induced cloud invigoration and dynamical changes. We observed that the increase in cloud cover was associated with a reduction in cloud base height and an increase in the effective radius of cloud particles which led to an increase in cloud water content. In response to sudden emission reduction, an anomalous northward moisture transport was observed adding convection and precipitation over the Indian region. Importantly, we show that there is an advantage of anthropogenic pollution reduction for water availability in addition to benefits of air quality, human health, and crop yield.
ISSN:2296-665X
2296-665X
DOI:10.3389/fenvs.2022.911363