TY  - JOUR
AU  - Asutosh, A.
AU  - Fadnavis, S.
AU  - Chavan, Prashant
AU  - Sabin, T. P.
AU  - Müller, Rolf
TI  - Abrupt emission reduction during COVID-19 intensified the spring 2020 rainfall over India
JO  - Frontiers in Environmental Science
VL  - 10
SN  - 2296-665X
CY  - Lausanne
PB  - Frontiers Media
M1  - FZJ-2022-03796
SP  - 911363
PY  - 2022
AB  - The high level of aerosol pollution in South Asia has a measurable impact on clouds, radiation, and precipitation. Here, exploring multiple observational data sets and simulations of the state-of-the-art ECHAM6-HAMMOZ chemistry-climate model, we report that the reduction in anthropogenic emissions during the COVID-19 lockdown period has enhanced precipitation by 5–25% over India. This precipitation enhancement is the result of the combined effect of an enhancement in cloud cover, a reduction in aerosol induced cloud invigoration and dynamical changes. We observed that the increase in cloud cover was associated with a reduction in cloud base height and an increase in the effective radius of cloud particles which led to an increase in cloud water content. In response to sudden emission reduction, an anomalous northward moisture transport was observed adding convection and precipitation over the Indian region. Importantly, we show that there is an advantage of anthropogenic pollution reduction for water availability in addition to benefits of air quality, human health, and crop yield.
LB  - PUB:(DE-HGF)16
UR  - <Go to ISI:>//WOS:000856019200001
DO  - DOI:10.3389/fenvs.2022.911363
UR  - https://juser.fz-juelich.de/record/910407
ER  -