Estimation of radiative forcing values from a ceilometer network data: Application to the COVID-19 lockdown period in the Iberia Peninsula

^(a) Department of Environment, Centro de Investigaciones Energéticas, Medioambientales y Tecnológicas (CIEMAT), Avda Complutense, 40, Madrid 28040, Spain
^(b) Andalusian Institute for Earth System Research, IISTA-CEAMA, University of Granada, Junta de Andalucía, Granada, Spain
^(c) Department of Applied Physics, University of Granada, Granada, Spain
^(d) Grupo de Óptica Atmosférica (GOA), Universidad de Valladolid, Valladolid, Spain
^(e) Department of Physics, University of Extremadura, Badajoz, Spain
^(f) Institute of Water Research, Climate Change and Sustainability, IACYS, University of Extremadura, Badajoz, Spain
^(g) Institute of Environmental Assessment and Water Research (IDAEA-CSIC), Barcelona, Spain
^(h) German Aerospace Center (DLR), Institute of Solar Research, Plataforma Solar de Almería, Almería, Spain

Published online: 9 April 2026

Abstract

During the first half of the year 2020 because of the appearance of coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 and its associate illness “coronavirus disease 2019” (COVID-19) lockdown measures were adopted in Spain producing an exceptional situation in air pollutant emission scenarios due to a sharp decrease in road traffic and industrial activity. The main atmospheric effect related to the lockdown measures analyzed in this research, with the help of the GAME code, is the aerosol direct radiative forcing. The analysis presented in this study is based on the estimation of aerosol radiative forcing before and during the lockdown in Spain, using data from 6 stations scattered across the Iberian Peninsula that belong to the ICENET network and present very different climatic characteristics. As preliminary results, some statistically significant variations have been found between the radiative forcing before and during the lockdown both in the SW and in the LW components.