A new study disputes the claim that global emissions reductions during the COVID-19 lockdown caused a dip in lunar surface temperatures. While previous research suggested a link between the lockdown and the temperature drop, a new paper argues that other factors, such as the gradual decline in temperatures observed before the lockdown, might be responsible.
This view shows the thin crescent moon setting over ESO’s Paranal Observatory in Chile. As well as the bright crescent, the rest of the disc of the moon can be faintly seen. This phenomenon, called Earthshine, is due to sunlight reflecting off Earth and illuminating the lunar surface.Scientists have been arguing about a curious topic recently: Did temperatures on the moon dip due to the world's Covid-19 lockdown?, causing a slight dip in lunar surface temperatures.
"The process in reality is very complex, and I believe not all factors were considered," Shirin Haque, a researcher at the University of the West Indies in Trinidad, told Space.com by email. Haque and her colleague presented a dissenting view of the original data."That is what may have led them to the conclusion they arrived at.
They pointed to the timing of the temperature drop. While the Prasad-Ambily paper highlights the measurements taken between April and May, the Haque paper notes that the temperature starts to drop in 2019, before the worldwide lockdown took place. The drop is gradual, they argue, not sudden."Schonberg and Haque have claimed that the temperature began dropping earlier by visually analyzing the trendline" on a figure in the Prasad-Ambily paper, he said.
The new paper also pointed to another significant temperature drop in 2018, one that Prasad and Ambily had also noted. That drop clearly wasn't related to the Covid shutdown, and the authors suggested that it could be significant. Haque and Schonberg said they appreciate that their colleagues are open to other causes. However, they said that the very title of the original article —"Effects of Covid-19 global lockdown on our moon" — appears to negate that uncertainty.
LUNAR TEMPERATURE EARTHSHINE COVID-19 LOCKDOWN ATMOSPHERIC CHANGES CLIMATE SCIENCE
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