The effect of the European covid-19 lockdown on Swedish air quality

This project focuses on identifying and quantifying the effect that the European lockdown due to the covid-19 pandemic has on the Swedish air quality, with an emphasis on aerosol particles.

The implications of this air quality perturbation for human health and climate are also determined through the use of relevant proxies.We will compile and quality-control all relevant Swedish background and urban air quality data during the covid-19 pandemic as was well as the years before (2015-2019).The project relies heavily on the active participation of several cities (Stockholm, Gothenburg, Malmö and Umeå).

Our two Swedish ACTRIS sites will provide essential data on background air quality.We expect that sufficient data can be gathered during periods in different years for which both source region and meteorological conditions are nearly identical to corresponding time periods during the covid-19 lockdown.

Such selected cases will be used to test whether the lockdown has a significant impact on the air quality in Sweden.In close collaboration with the four municipalities, we will co-arrange workshops where we will also invite representatives from more municipalities and cities and authorities that are likely to take an interest.Apart from peer-reviewed publications in Open Access and reports, project results will also be communicated via the Lund University Centre for Environmental and Climate Research, also hosting in MERGE, a VR/FORMAS Strategic Research Area on climate modelling.