NASA: Covid-19 and Reductions in Nitrogen Dioxide Associated with Decreased Fossil Fuel Use!

I 1st picked up on the mention of Nitrogen Dioxide in a Chinese newspaper article stating their scientists have launched a new model to predict Covid-19.

Chinese scientists launch COVID-19 predictor; US may see 30,000 new cases daily

The infection figures used to establish the system are from Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, and meteorological data, such as humidity and temperature, comes from NASA and the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts, the center said.

Environmental temperature and variations of nitrogen dioxide concentration in the atmosphere are two important indicators for predictions on the COVID-19 pandemic. About 60 percent of confirmed global COVID-19 cases occurred in places with a temperature of 5 to 15 C. The pandemic spreads to high latitude in spring and summer, and mid-latitude countries face risks of a second wave of the COVID-19 epidemic this autumn, the research showed.

So I went digging for concentration maps of Nitrogen Dioxide. I found two by NASA. Here's the 1st link:

A Decade of Change for Nitrogen Dioxide

Here's the 2nd link:

Reductions in Nitrogen Dioxide Associated with Decreased Fossil Fuel Use Resulting from COVID-19 Mitigation

These recent improvements in air quality have come at a high cost, as communities grapple with widespread lockdowns and shelter-in-place orders as a result of the spread of COVID-19. One air pollutant, nitrogen dioxide (NO2), is primarily emitted from burning fossil fuels (diesel, gasoline, coal), coming out of our tailpipes when driving cars and smokestacks when generating electricity. Therefore, changes in NO2 levels can be used as an indicator of changes in human activity. However, care must be taken when processing and interpreting satellite NO2 data as the quantity observed by the satellite is not exactly the same as the NO2 abundance at ground level. NO2 levels are influenced by dynamical and chemical processes in the atmosphere.

Once again we have the environmental spin but at the end of the day it is what it is. New World Order or No World Order. The bottom line is that man will have to change.

a reply to: Waterglass

Sounds like the commies are threatening us.

Be a shame if someone accidentally released some Ebola-Pox on them.

a reply to: Waterglass

The way I understand viruses, when the summer heat kicks in they tend to recede.
That's why flu season isn't in July.

So shouldn't warmer climate reduce virus spread?

a reply to: Bluntone22

I think heat is just one consideration.

Air pollution has definitely played a part in this time, as well as others. Both in terms of folks immune systems and impacting how pathogens flow through the atmosphere.

A more recent concept that was brought to my attention is the idea that flora plays a huge role in all of this too.

So, a place with high pollution with reduced flora is much more likely to be hit harder. Nothing is exactly an on/off switch though.

Hard to explore a lot of this in more recent times, with agendas being what they are. And importantly, Im not sure that "confirmed cases" is a particularly noteworthy marker. Rather, the severity of those cases.. alongside hospital capacity and deaths.

a reply to: Serdgiam

I agree.
One factor will be lauded to push someone's agendas.

Politics has no place in science but that's pretty much where it is now.

a reply to: Waterglass
Your putting the cart before the horse. The Covid 19 pandemic was rampant before the reduction of Nitrogen Dioxide. The result of Nitrogen Dioxide comes from the nature of the lockdown and the resulting lack of consuming fossil fuels. Not the other way round.

Well, creating and burning corngas increases the levels of nitrogen dioxide coming out of the tailpipes, and nitrogen is way more of a problematic compound in global warming than carbon dioxide. Burning corn gas that lowers our MPG is kind of dumb, plus all that corn farming destroyed the land so it cannot be used for other food production. Now we are more reliant on getting our food from areas where there has been little gasahol production because the soils are full of glyphosate metabolites from pouring it on the fields. Of Course, California imports a lot of food from other countries and also, they did not grow much corn, so their soils can still grow veggies.

If you can control the food supply you can control the country. How stupid is it that our leaders destroyed some of the best farmland in this country...Smart for those who want to control our food, dumb for us to let them do this.

a reply to: crayzeed

The Covid 19 pandemic was rampant before the reduction of Nitrogen Dioxide.

Thank you crazy seed but NASA wrote what they wrote and yes it does seem to be the cart before the horse. That's why I tossed both NASA links out in ATS. Strange isn't it. Especially the 1st link in that NASA the show huge gains in China in Nitrogen Dioxide from 2004 to 2014 yet China doesn't talk about China. Strange all around the horn.

a reply to: Bluntone22

Exactly. I wonder if NASA is making COVID-19 a political event as all seems to spin around "green" "green" and more "green" Its also very strange why the entire world bangs on USA when all manufacturing and fossil fuel gone wild is China #1 and India. Bottom line is the world today wants the USA to go out of business and let the countries having the largest populations run the world.

a reply to: Waterglass

And it is not enough.

You are right humankind will have to change.

And the vast, vast majority was from a decline in air travel. It's hilarious they have people thinking it's even worth changing driving habits when one less flight offsets sooooo many car trips.

a reply to: Waterglass