Air pollution from nitrogen dioxide has fallen by an estimated 40% in three European cities, according to new satellite data released by the European Space Agency, coinciding with a widespread lockdown to curb the spread of the coronavirus.
The space agency's Copernicus Sentinel-5P satellite mission has released composite images showing nitrogen dioxide concentrations from 14-25 March over France, Spain and Italy, compared to the monthly average of concentrations from 2019. "This is a first level estimate; some of these values have gone down by about 40% of the normal value...
so a very drastic decrease," Josef Aschbacher, ESA director of Earth Observation Programmes, said. Researchers studying the impact of emissions from industry and