NASA Finds Local Lockdowns Brought Global Ozone Reductions

As the coronavirus pandemic slowed global commerce to a crawl in early 2020, emissions of nitrogen oxides (NOx) – which create ozone, a danger to human health and to climate – decreased 15% globally with local reductions as high as 50%, according to a study led by scientists at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. As a result of the lower NOx emissions, by June 2020 global ozone levels had dropped to a level that policymakers thought it would take at least 15 years to reach by conventional means, such as regulations. Music credit: Universal Production Music: Waiting For Results - Adam John Salkeld [PRS], Neil Pollard [PRS] Credit: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center/Scientific Visualization Studio Katie Jepson (KBRwyle): Lead Producer Carol Rasmussen (NASA/JPL CalTech): Lead Writer Trent L. Schindler (USRA): Lead Visualizer Kazuyuki Miyazaki (JPL): Scientist Kevin W Bowman (JPL): Scientist Kathryn Mersmann (KBRwyle): Associate Producer Katie Jepson (KBRwyle): Editor