In cities across the world, the streets have emptied of people and vehicles, factories have shut down and flights have been grounded.

In China, satellite images from NASA and the European Space Agency have shown a significant decrease in nitrogen dioxide pollution in the early months of this year after much of the country went into lockdown, due to COVID-19 pandemic.

The European Environment Agency (EEA) reports a similar change in Barcelona and Madrid, where Spanish authorities issued confinement orders.

Air quality is improving in countries under COVID-19 quarantines.  

NO2  mainly produced by vehicles, Industrial sites and thermal power stations. “It is a short-lived pollutant, with a life time in the

atmosphere of about one day,”  Said Vincent

Henri Peuch, from the EU earth surveillance program. “As a result, this pollutant stays near the emissions sources and can be used as a proxy of the intensity of activity in different sectors,” he told. 

Recent satellite images show resurgence in NO2 emissions.

 A striking reduction has also been observed by the ESA in northern Italy, which has been locked down to fight the spread of the novel coronavirus. In northern Italy, “average NO2 concentration levels have been almost halved on average,” Mr.Peuch remarked.

 Crowds of tourists who  gone out due to pollution from the canals of Venice.  

"The canal is definitely clearer, you just have to look at the canal when water is very calm. There are no boats, there is no traffic. Definitely it is cleaner," said a Venice resident. It is just one of the possibly beneficial effects on the environment of the coronavirus pandemic.

Mahi Sideridou,  Europe Beyond Coal Managing Director, expressed the hope that the world overcomes the coronavirus crisis very quickly and people can go back to the lives that they knew before. He added,   “I hope that when that happens, we will remember that we need to make sure that we respect our climate commitments, we need to diminish pollution as much as possible.”

The remarkable reduction in human activity as a consequence of the coronavirus outbreak has shown dramatic improvements in air quality and lower emissions around the world and especially in regions of China and Italy.  Experts and scientists have been presented an interesting opportunity to uncover what happens to the air 

quality and pollution in general, when human induced emissions are forcibly halted.

“When the industrial activities, economic activities stop, it’s expected that you get a reduction in pollution and emissions of gases. It’s just that when you see the images, it’s quite striking. It becomes more real and you see the amount of reduction which is quite amazing and the fact that it happens quite quickly,” Alberto Troccoli, managing director of World Energy & Meteorology Council (WEMC) at the School of Environmental Studies at the University of East Anglia in Norwich, UK, told  New Europe.

 He said the first similar experiment was after the tragic events of September 11 when air traffic ground to a halt for several days. The fact that a virus is causing a larger, more extreme reaction is unheard of. “We’re going to live through this period for a longer time,” he said, adding that many people have to work from home and starting to do things with teleconferences.