“It goes without saying that the effects of coronavirus are terrible. But we’re also seeing a fascinating experiment which could be showing what might happen in the future if we do manage to clean up our air”.
Dr Wyche, the university’s Air Environment Research group and Phlorum have shared their early findings with the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra), with a journal submission being prepared.
The findings have not surprised Dr Wyche, but he will be interested to see what changes as the temperatures rise over the coming months: “We get a lot more photochemistry occurring in the troposphere as we get into the summer. If the atmosphere becomes more chemically active, we get a lot more secondary pollutants, like ozone, forming. So I’m not entirely sure what’s going to happen going forward”.
, ‘The environment and coronavirus’ on Apple Podcasts, Spotify and many other podcast platforms.