Detecting carbon dioxide emissions in Salt Lake City during the COVID-19 lockdown

Salt Lake City. Credit: Pixabay

A new study led by University of Utah scientists and funded by the Climate Program Office’s Atmospheric Chemistry, Carbon Cycle and Climate (AC4) and Climate Observations and Monitoring (COM) programs takes a closer look at Salt Lake City, Utah during the COVID-19 lockdowns to find out exactly how much emissions from different sources changed from March 13 through April 30, 2020. The results, published in the Journal of Geophysical Research – Atmospheres, show that carbon dioxide emissions decreased by about twenty percent because of the COVID-19 lockdowns. The largest reductions were centered around major roadways, and were caused by a decline in traffic, but reductions were also identified around industrial point sources. The twenty percent decline in emissions is smaller than reductions measured in  similar recent research in large cities like Los Angeles and Paris. This discrepancy is consistent with less stringent lockdown measures in Salt Lake City.