New Delhi: Global Covid-induced lockdown of 2020 may have had an impact on Moon’s temperature, according to a study by Indian researchers. The research published in peer-reviewed Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society: Letters reveals that lunar surface temperatures showed an anomalous dip during the strictest lockdown period of April-May 2020.
The study was published by K Durga Prasad and G Ambily from Physical Research Laboratory (PRL) after analysing night-time surface temperatures at six different sites-two locations of Oceanus Procellarum, Mare Serenitatis, Mare Imbrium, Mare Tranquillitatis, and Mare Crisium-on Moon's nearside between 2017 and 2023, according to TOI report.
The researchers, who used data from NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, observed a consistent 8-10 Kelvin decrease in temperatures in Moon during the lockdown months compared to the same period in other years. While they analysed data for 12 years, they used seven years data (2017 to 2023) in their study for uniformity – three years before the lockdown year, 2020 and the three years thereafter.
This temperature drop is attributed to a reduction in greenhouse gas emissions and aerosols during lockdown, leading to less heat being trapped and re-emitted by Earth's atmosphere.
The lowest overall temperature was 96.2 K at Site-2 in 2020, while the highest of the lowest temperatures was 143.8 K at Site-1 in 2022.
Moon, explained Prasad, acts as an amplifier of Earth's radiation signature. "This unique global event provided us with a rare opportunity to observe how changes in human activity on Earth can affect our nearest celestial neighbour," said Prasad, according to TOI.
"As an anomalous decrease in lunar night-time surface temperatures during the Covid lockdown period is observed, the effect of other possible factors such as solar activity and seasonal flux variation have also been investigated. Results show that none of these factors have any influence on the observed signature, thus supporting our findings to be only due to Covid lockdown," the paper reads.
The authors, however, acknowledge that more data is needed to fully establish the link between Earth's radiation changes and lunar surface temperatures. They suggest future Moon-based observatories could play a role in studying Earth's climate and environmental shifts.