Factcheck: Do increased SO2 emissions indicate mass cremations in Wuhan?

FURTHER INFORMATION

Images on social media allege to show an increase in sulphur dioxide (SO2) levels around Wuhan, China. It is claimed that the increase in emissions of sulphur dioxide is caused by the cremation of animal and human victims of coronavirus. These claims have been made on Twitter, in national and international news outlets, and in videos on YouTube. Images from windy.com, a Czech-based weather monitoring service, are used as evidence of the increase in emissions.

This claim is false. The satellite images presented as evidence are not from observed data but are predictions based on past evidence. NASA provided the initial data, and confirmed they are forecasts based on historical data and weather patterns.

SOURCES

Snopes: Do Sulfur Emissions from Wuhan, China, point to mass cremation of coronavirus victims?

Arlindo da Silva, research meteorologist at NASA’s Global Modeling and Assimilation Office, in Full Fact: These aren’t satellite images and they don’t show evidence of mass cremations in Wuhan

Euronews: ‘Debunked: This image doesn’t show ‘extent of corpse burning in Wuhan’

Origins of Claim

FULL TEXT OF CLAIM

“If someone can look into the sulphur dioxide increases relative to burning of bodies and just confirm that that is a signature of mass burnings, which I suspect it is, then I would appreciate it, so we can have another data point on what is really going on. Because if there is that much sulphur dioxide over Wuhan, then the death toll is much much much higher than we think.”