A new study has looked at evaporation of respiratory droplets — specifically those that contain virus.
When temperature is high and relative humidity is low simultaneously, the study found a significant reduction in virus viability.
On the other hand, when RH is high, then the distance travelled by the droplet cloud, and the virus concentration remain significant — at any temperature.
This, the study notes, is in contradiction with what was previously believed by many epidemiologists.
The research took into account humidity, temperature, and wind speed.
The researchers developed new theoretical correlations for the unsteady evaporation of coronavirus-contaminated saliva droplets.
It introduced the thermodynamic properties of virions (the complete virus) as a liquid.
The key finding is that evaporation is a critical factor for the transmission of the infectious particles immersed in respiratory clouds of saliva droplets.