Finding a hair in the swimming pool: The signal of changed fossil emissions in the atmosphere
Three leading scientists of the Integrated Carbon Observation System (ICOS) community have written an article that discusses the effects of the Covid-19 shutdown. The study – based on ICOS data – shows these signs are currently almost impossible to see in the atmosphere – but they are there. They use an analogue of a swimming pool to explain in simple terms how the continuously increasing human emissions get mixed with the already existing carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, and of what magnitude is the effect of the Covid-19 shutdown. In the article, ICOS also invites everybody to join the race of finding the signal, this thinnest of the thin hair in the atmospheric swimming pool.
The authors of the article are Werner Kutsch (DG of ICOS), Alex Vermeulen (Lund University/director ICOS Carbon Portal) and Ute Karstens (Lund University). Find here the link to the article.
