NASA Satellite Measurements Show Global‐Scale Reductions in Free Tropospheric Ozone in 2020 and Again in 2021 During COVID‐19

NASA satellite measurements show that ozone reductions throughout the Northern Hemisphere (NH) free troposphere reported for spring‐summer 2020 during the COronaVIrus Disease 2019 pandemic have occurred again in spring‐summer 2021. The satellite measurements show that tropospheric column ozone (TCO) (mostly representative of the free troposphere) for 20°N–60°N during spring‐summer for both 2020 and 2021 averaged ∼3 Dobson Units (DU) (or ∼7%–8%) below normal. These ozone reductions in 2020 and 2021 were the lowest in the 2005–2021 record. We also include satellite measurements of tropospheric NO(2) that exhibit reductions of ∼10%–20% in the NH in early spring‐to‐summer 2020 and 2021, suggesting that reduced pollution was the main cause for the low anomalies in NH TCO in 2020 and 2021. Reductions of TCO ∼2 DU (7%) are also measured in the Southern Hemisphere in austral summer but are not associated with reduced NO(2).