A new NASA study suggests that the outbreak of the conflict in Syria has cleaned up its air. However, the research has found that air pollution has increased in areas of refugee population.

NASA’s findings reveal that a prolonged war causes the air to clean up as a result of decline in population due to deaths and refugees fleeing, reports the Express. The NASA research has taken into account the pollution caused by bombs.

NASA made this interesting discovery during its global study of nitrogen dioxide levels, which found that the UK, New York, northern Europe and China are the most polluted areas in the world. According to the NASA findings, over-populated areas suffer the worst pollution.

Levels of pollution are generally low in the Middle East but have increased in Iran as a result of economic growth. However, Syria’s levels have dropped since the conflict broke out in 2011.

"In Syria, nitrogen dioxide levels decreased since 2011, most likely because of the civil war, which has interrupted economic activity and displaced millions of people,” says a NASA spokesman. "The decreases in Syria are tied to the economic disruption caused by their civil war."

Lebanon, on the other hand, shows massive pollution increase as a result of the influx of refugees from Syria.

NASA used high-resolution global satellite maps of air quality indicators to track air pollution trends over the last decade in various regions and 195 cities around the globe. It used the Dutch-Finnish Ozone Monitoring Instrument aboard its Aura satellite to examine observations made from 2005 to 2014.

Syria, which contributes to 0.15 percent of the global pollution, was missing from the Climate Change conference in Paris, as its political situation prevents it from paying attention to its emissions, according to the Bloomberg.

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