BENGALURU: Indian researchers found evidence that global Covid lockdowns in 2020 may have had an impact all the way to the Moon. A study published in the peer-reviewed journal Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society: Letters, accessed by TOI, reveals that lunar surface temperature showed an anomalous decline during the strictest lockdown period from April to May 2020.
K Durga Prasad and G Ambily z Physical Research Laboratory (PRL) analyzed nighttime surface temperatures at six different locations – two locations Oceanus Procellarum, Mare Serenitatis, Mare Imbrium, Mare Tranquillitatis and Mare Crisium – on the near side of the Moon from 2017 to 2023. PRL director Anil Bharadwaj said: “.. This is an important work of our group. It’s quite unique.

Using data from NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, scientists observed a steady drop in lunar temperatures of 8 to 10 degrees Celsius during the lockdown months compared to the same period in other years.
“We actually analyzed 12 years of data. However, in our study, we used seven years of data (2017-2023) to ensure uniformity – three years before the lockdown year, 2020 and three years after,” Prasad told TOI.
Scientists attribute this drop in temperature to a reduction in radiation coming out of the Earth during lockdowns.
With the decline in human activity, there has been a significant decline greenhouse gases and aerosols, leading to less heat being captured and re-emitted by the Earth’s atmosphere.
Scientists have observed significant temperature differences in different places and years. The lowest overall temperature was 96.2 K at Site 2 in 2020, while the highest of the lows was 143.8 K at Site 1 in 2022. Overall, in 2020, the lowest temperatures at most locations occurred with a noticeable warming trend in 2021 and 2022, when human activity resumes on Earth.
“The moon acts as an amplifier of Earth’s radiation signature. This unique global event gave us a rare opportunity to observe how changes in human activity on Earth may impact our closest celestial neighbor,” Prasad explained.
“Due to the anomalous decrease in nighttime temperatures of the lunar surface during the period: Covid ban on going out observation period, the influence of other possible factors, such as solar activity and seasonal flux variability, was also examined. The results show that none of these factors have any influence on the observed signature, confirming that our findings are solely due to the Covid lockdown,” the paper says.
While the study shows an intriguing correlation, the authors acknowledge that more data is needed to fully establish the link between changes in Earth’s radiation and lunar surface temperatures. They suggest that future observatories on the Moon could play a role in studying Earth’s climate and environmental changes.