Carbon Dioxide (CO₂) has many natural and anthropogenic sources. Anthropogenic sources include power generation, transportation, industrial production and processes, chemical production, petroleum production, and agricultural practices. The COVID-19 lockdowns experienced in many parts of the world are expected to have resulted in reduced anthropogenic CO₂ emissions due to a reduction of many of these activities.

One of the component studies of the ICOVAC project used an ensemble of satellite retrievals of xCO₂ (column-averaged CO₂ in the atmosphere) to determine whether COVID-19-related regional-scale CO₂ emission reductions can be detected and quantified using the current space-based observing system. This study was important, not just to see the possible effects of national lockdowns on CO₂ emissions, but in order to establish the capabilities of current satellites which have been optimised to obtain information on natural carbon sources and sinks, but not to obtain information on anthropogenic emissions. This study focused on China because regional-scale COVID-19-related CO₂ emission reductions were expected to be largest there early in the pandemic.

In this video, Michael Buchwitz, explains how we get information on atmospheric Carbon Dioxide (CO₂) from satellites, why this is important, and what can we learn from these observations in general, but in particular with respect to COVID-19.

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Featured Educator

• Dr Michael Buchwitz, Senior Scientist, University of Bremen

Thanks to all of the contributing scientists for self-filming during the COVID-19 lockdown.

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