Lockdowns have been a controversial aspect of the COVID-19 pandemic. Yes, they undoubtedly save lives, but they also cause major ongoing economic issues – disrupting industries, causing job losses and associated financial pain.
新冠疫情期間的居家隔離飽受爭議。毫無疑問，居家隔離能挽救生命，但也會造成重大經(jīng)濟問題，各行各業(yè)停擺，造成失業(yè)和相關(guān)經(jīng)濟損失。

But another thing lockdowns have done all over the world is decrease air pollution, and new research shows an interesting flow-on effect of this.
但居家隔離也有好處，全球的空氣污染減少了，新的研究展示了這一現(xiàn)象的有趣影響。

The new study has looked at solar power in Delhi – one of the most polluted cities in the world – and has found that the reduction in air pollution has allowed significantly more sunlight to get through to solar panels in the city, increasing their output.
這項新研究觀察了德里的太陽能，德里是全球污染最嚴重的城市之一。研究發(fā)現(xiàn)空氣污染的減少大大增加了該市照射在太陽能電池板上的陽光，提高了電量輸出。

"The increase that we saw is equivalent to the difference between what a photovoltaic (PV) installation in Houston would produce compared with one in Toronto," says first author Ian Marius Peters of Helmholtz-Institut Erlangen-Nürnberg for Renewable Energies in Germany.
德國赫爾姆霍茲愛爾蘭根紐倫堡可再生能源研究所第一作者Ian Marius Peters說：“我們發(fā)現(xiàn)發(fā)電量增加前后的差別相當(dāng)于休斯頓光伏設(shè)施的發(fā)電量和多倫多之間的差別?！?/div>

"I expected to see some difference, but I was surprised by how clearly the effect was visible."
“我之前預(yù)料到會有些區(qū)別，但效果太過明顯，令我驚訝。”

Delhi went into a strict lockdown on the 24 March 2020. The team looked at the PM2.5 particle concentration, a measure of fine particles less than 2.5 micrometres in diameter, in the air at the US embassy in Delhi before and after the lockdown – and compared them to the last few years at the same time of the year.
從2020年3月份開始德里嚴格執(zhí)行居家隔離，研究團隊監(jiān)測了隔離前后位于德里的美國大使館內(nèi)空氣中的PM2.5濃度，也就是直徑小于2.5微米的微粒，并與前幾年的同期做了對比。

They also looked at the clear sky irradiance – which is how much sunlight reaches Earth's surface without being scattered or absorbed by particles and gases in the air.
他們也觀察了晴空輻照度，即到達地球表面，在空中沒有被散射或被微粒和氣體吸收的陽光照射量。

The team found that, overall, the amount of sunlight reaching solar panels in Delhi increased by around 8 percent in late March 2020, and 6 percent in April 2020 compared to similar dates in earlier years.
研究團隊發(fā)現(xiàn)，總體來看，與前幾年的同期相比，在德里到達太陽能電池板上的陽光照射量在2020年3月末增加了8%左右，在2020年4月份增加了6%。

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翻譯：菲菲