Articles | Volume 3, issue 1
https://doi.org/10.5194/ar-3-155-2025
https://doi.org/10.5194/ar-3-155-2025
Research article
 | 
28 Mar 2025
Research article |  | 28 Mar 2025

Unchanged PM2.5 levels over Europe during COVID-19 were buffered by ammonia

Nikolaos Evangeliou, Ondřej Tichý, Marit Svendby Otervik, Sabine Eckhardt, Yves Balkanski, and Didier A. Hauglustaine

Related authors

Sources of ultrafine particles at a rural Midland site in Switzerland
Lubna Dada, Benjamin T. Brem, Lidia-Marta Amarandi-Netedu, Martine Collaud Coen, Nikolaos Evangeliou, Christoph Hueglin, Nora Nowak, Robin Modini, Martin Steinbacher, and Martin Gysel-Beer
Aerosol Research Discuss., https://doi.org/10.5194/ar-2024-35,https://doi.org/10.5194/ar-2024-35, 2025
Revised manuscript accepted for AR
Short summary
Multi-year black carbon observations and modeling close to the largest gas flaring and wildfire regions (Western Siberian Arctic)
Olga B. Popovicheva, Marina A. Chichaeva, Nikolaos Evangeliou, Sabine Eckhardt, Evangelia Diapouli, and Nikolay S. Kasimov
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2024-3124,https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2024-3124, 2024
Short summary
Composition and sources of carbonaceous aerosol in the European Arctic at Zeppelin Observatory, Svalbard (2017 to 2020)
Karl Espen Yttri, Are Bäcklund, Franz Conen, Sabine Eckhardt, Nikolaos Evangeliou, Markus Fiebig, Anne Kasper-Giebl, Avram Gold, Hans Gundersen, Cathrine Lund Myhre, Stephen Matthew Platt, David Simpson, Jason D. Surratt, Sönke Szidat, Martin Rauber, Kjetil Tørseth, Martin Album Ytre-Eide, Zhenfa Zhang, and Wenche Aas
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 24, 2731–2758, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-2731-2024,https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-2731-2024, 2024
Short summary
Decreasing trends of ammonia emissions over Europe seen from remote sensing and inverse modelling
Ondřej Tichý, Sabine Eckhardt, Yves Balkanski, Didier Hauglustaine, and Nikolaos Evangeliou
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 23, 15235–15252, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-15235-2023,https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-15235-2023, 2023
Short summary
A roadmap to estimating agricultural ammonia volatilization over Europe using satellite observations and simulation data
Rimal Abeed, Camille Viatte, William C. Porter, Nikolaos Evangeliou, Cathy Clerbaux, Lieven Clarisse, Martin Van Damme, Pierre-François Coheur, and Sarah Safieddine
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 23, 12505–12523, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-12505-2023,https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-12505-2023, 2023
Short summary

Related subject area

Atmospheric Aerosols (AA)
Effect of planetary boundary layer evolution on new particle formation events over Cyprus
Neha Deot, Vijay P. Kanawade, Alkistis Papetta, Rima Baalbaki, Michael Pikridas, Franco Marenco, Markku Kulmala, Jean Sciare, Katrianne Lehtipalo, and Tuija Jokinen
Aerosol Research, 3, 139–154, https://doi.org/10.5194/ar-3-139-2025,https://doi.org/10.5194/ar-3-139-2025, 2025
Short summary
Linking biogenic high-temperature ice nucleating particles in Arctic soils and streams to their microbial producers
Lasse Z. Jensen, Julie K. Simonsen, Ada Pastor, Christof Pearce, Per Nørnberg, Lars Chresten Lund-Hansen, Kai Finster, and Tina Šantl-Temkiv
Aerosol Research, 3, 81–100, https://doi.org/10.5194/ar-3-81-2025,https://doi.org/10.5194/ar-3-81-2025, 2025
Short summary
New particle formation dynamics in the central Andes: contrasting urban and mountaintop environments
Diego Aliaga, Victoria A. Sinclair, Radovan Krejci, Marcos Andrade, Paulo Artaxo, Luis Blacutt, Runlong Cai, Samara Carbone, Yvette Gramlich, Liine Heikkinen, Dominic Heslin-Rees, Wei Huang, Veli-Matti Kerminen, Alkuin Maximilian Koenig, Markku Kulmala, Paolo Laj, Valeria Mardoñez-Balderrama, Claudia Mohr, Isabel Moreno, Pauli Paasonen, Wiebke Scholz, Karine Sellegri, Laura Ticona, Gaëlle Uzu, Fernando Velarde, Alfred Wiedensohler, Doug Worsnop, Cheng Wu, Chen Xuemeng, Qiaozhi Zha, and Federico Bianchi
Aerosol Research, 3, 15–44, https://doi.org/10.5194/ar-3-15-2025,https://doi.org/10.5194/ar-3-15-2025, 2025
Short summary
Sources of ultrafine particles at a rural Midland site in Switzerland
Lubna Dada, Benjamin T. Brem, Lidia-Marta Amarandi-Netedu, Martine Collaud Coen, Nikolaos Evangeliou, Christoph Hueglin, Nora Nowak, Robin Modini, Martin Steinbacher, and Martin Gysel-Beer
Aerosol Research Discuss., https://doi.org/10.5194/ar-2024-35,https://doi.org/10.5194/ar-2024-35, 2025
Revised manuscript accepted for AR
Short summary
Cloud drop activation of insoluble aerosols aided by film-forming surfactants
Ari Laaksonen
Aerosol Research, 2, 343–351, https://doi.org/10.5194/ar-2-343-2024,https://doi.org/10.5194/ar-2-343-2024, 2024
Short summary

Cited articles

Abbatt, J. P. D., Benz, S., Cziczo, D. J., Kanji, Z., Lohmann, U., and Mohler, O.: Solid Ammonium Sulfate Aerosols as Ice Nuclei: A Pathway for Cirrus Cloud Formation, Science, 313, 1770–1773, 2006. 
Acharya, P., Barik, G., Gayen, B. K., Bar, S., Maiti, A., Sarkar, A., Ghosh, S., De, S. K., and Sreekesh, S.: Revisiting the levels of Aerosol Optical Depth in south-southeast Asia, Europe and USA amid the COVID-19 pandemic using satellite observations, Environ. Res., 193, 110514, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envres.2020.110514, 2021. 
Anderson, N., Strader, R., and Davidson, C.: Airborne reduced nitrogen: Ammonia emissions from agriculture and other sources, Environ. Int., 29, 277–286, https://doi.org/10.1016/S0160-4120(02)00186-1, 2003. 
Anderson, R., Hollingsworth, T. D., Baggaley, R. F., Maddren, R., and Vegvari, C.: COVID-19 spread in the UK: the end of the beginning?, The Lancet, 396, 587–590, https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(20)31689-5, 2020. 
Archer, C. L., Cervone, G., Golbazi, M., Al Fahel, N., and Hultquist, C.: Changes in air quality and human mobility in the USA during the COVID-19 pandemic, Bulletin of Atmospheric Science and Technology, 1, 491–514, https://doi.org/10.1007/s42865-020-00019-0, 2020. 
Download
Short summary
The COVID-19 lockdown measures in 2020 reduced emissions of various substances, improving air quality. However, PM2.5 stayed unchanged due to NH3 and related chemical transformations. Higher humidity favoured more SO42- production, as did the accumulated NH3. Excess NH3 reacted with HNO3 to make NO3-. In high-NH3 conditions such as those in 2020, a small reduction in NOx levels drove faster oxidation of NO3- and slower deposition of total inorganic NO3-, causing high secondary PM2.5.
Share
Altmetrics
Final-revised paper
Preprint