衛星照片顯示,全歐洲空氣污染驟降

Air pollution from nitrogen dioxide has fallen by an estimated 40% in three European cities, according to new satellite data released by the European Space Agency (ESA), coinciding with a widespread lockdown to curb the spread of the coronavirus.
歐洲航天局發佈的新的衛星數據顯示，爲了阻止冠狀病毒傳播多地封城期間，據估計在三個歐洲城市中，二氧化氮造成的空氣污染下降了40%。

The space agency's Copernicus Sentinel-5P satellite mission on Friday released three composite images showing nitrogen dioxide concentrations in the period March 14-25 over France, Spain and Italy, compared to the monthly average of concentrations from 2019.
歐洲航天局的哥白尼哨兵-5p衛星任務在週五發佈了三個合成圖像，顯示了3月14日至25日期間法國、西班牙和意大利的二氧化氮濃度，與2019年的月平均濃度做了對比。

"This is a first level estimate; some of these values have gone down by about 40% of the normal value... so a very drastic decrease," Josef Aschbacher, ESA Director of Earth Observation Programmes, told Reuters via a video call.
歐洲航天局地球觀測項目主任Josef Aschbacher在視頻通話中對路透社說：“這是一級估值，其中一些數值與正常值相比下降了約40%，下降幅度竟如此之大。

Researchers studying the impact of emissions from industry and transport on climate change and human health are scrambling to understand the possible implications of the coronavirus pandemic as economies slow, flights are disrupted and quarantines imposed.
目前經濟放緩，航班被迫取消，還要實行隔離，研究工業和運輸排放對氣候變化和人類健康影響的研究人員正在盡力瞭解新冠疫情可能產生的影響。

"What you really see are the centers of this pollution... It is quite a good first level indicator of anthropogenic pollution coming from traffic and industry," added Aschbacher.
Aschbacher補充說：“你真正看到的都是污染中心。這是交通和工業產生的人爲污染的很好的一級指標。”

Nitrogen dioxide, a noxious gas emitted by cars, power plants and factories, is blamed for some respiratory and heart conditions.
二氧化氮是汽車、發電廠和工廠排放的有毒氣體，會導致呼吸和心臟疾病。

Almost every city-dwelling European is exposed to pollution levels that exceed healthy levels, according to a 2019 report from European Environment Agency (EEA).
2019年歐洲環境署的一份報告顯示，幾乎所有在城市居住的歐洲人身邊的污染程度都超過健康水平。