"Lockdown was. the period of recess the effect of Global warming".Justify the given statement.
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CLIMATE FEATURE
Has the COVID-19 lockdown changed Earth’s climate?
09 Sep 2020
Taken from the September 2020 issue of Physics World. Members of the Institute of Physics can enjoy the full issue via the Physics World app.
The lockdown measures imposed by many nations due to the COVID-19 pandemic have led to air pollution falling dramatically, thereby offering scientists a rare opportunity to study its links with climate and weather. But as Kate Ravilious discovers, it’s a complicated connection
Shanghai air pollution
Shrouded cities Smog has reduced over many metropolitan areas, including Shanghai, thanks to lockdown restrictions, but in other places the smog is worse than ever. (Courtesy: iStock/fazon1)
COVID-19 has changed the world. The pandemic has caused devastation, pain and loss, with no corner of the globe untouched. But for some scientists the unprecedented disruption has also brought about a previously unimaginable opportunity. The dramatic fall in air pollution that accompanied countries going into lockdown has provided a unique natural experiment, enabling scientists to probe some of the long-standing mysteries surrounding cloud formation. In doing so, they have gained a better understanding of the complicated interactions between air pollution, weather and climate.
Stringent lockdown measures were first introduced in Wuhan, China – where COVID-19 was initially identified – on 23 January 2020, and quickly rippled out across the rest of the country to combat the spread of the SARS-CoV-2 virus. With public transport shut down, schools, universities and workplaces closed, and people confined to their homes, the streets became silent and air pollution plummeted. Satellite data revealed, for example, that nitrogen dioxide had fallen by as much as 70% (figure 1) across eastern China, with some locations – including Wuhan – seeing drops of up to 93%. And as the virus swept around the world and other countries imposed their own versions of lockdown, the atmosphere responded, with smog being replaced by blue skies in New Delhi, the Himalayan mountain chain becoming visible from parts of northern India for the first time in 30 years, and city skylines being brought into sharp relief in Jakarta, Los Angeles, Paris and beyond.
However, cleaner air doesn’t necessarily result in wall-to-wall blue skies. Just as a small amount of sugar or salt can make a cake taste very different, so small changes in the composition of the atmosphere can trigger a chain reaction of interesting atmospheric effects: concocting new chemicals, making or breaking up clouds, and potentially changing the weather at the surface. But teasing out those changes, against the background of natural climate variability, is difficult.
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