Air pollution in Greater Manchester has dropped by as much as two-fifths as people stay home to beat the coronavirus outbreak.
With fewer people on the move as all but necessary journeys were at first strongly discouraged and later banned, local monitoring stations are measuring much lower levels of dangerous air pollutants compared to this time last year.
Research by the BBC Shared Data Unit found levels of nitrogen dioxide (NO2) at the Manchester Sharston station averaged 15.0 micrograms per cubic metre between March 17 and 24.
That was down from an average of 25.5 micrograms per cubic metre between March 19 and 26 last year. NO2 primarily gets in the air from the burning of fuel, usually as emissions from cars, trucks and buses and power