Satellites document the impact of COVID-19 from space

NASA, the European Space Agency (ESA) and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) follow the evolution of COVID-19 on the economy and the environment. The three space agencies have assembled satellite observations to create a new dashboard which was unveiled today.

The Earth observation dashboardCOVID-19 allows users to explore how the current pandemic has affected airport and marine traffic, city lights and agricultural production in locations around the world. It also includes data on greenhouse gases, air quality and water quality.

"The pandemic not only left a staggering record of human suffering. This had a global impact that we could document from space, said Thomas Zurbuchen, associate administrator of the NASA Science Missions Directorate, in a video posted with the dashboard. "Our three space agencies realized that if we could combine our forces, we could bring a more powerful set of analytical tools to deal with this rapidly evolving crisis. "

The JAXA -2 ALOS satellite and the ESA Sentinel-1 satellite observed the density of new carsThey are parked in a factory near Beijing International Airport. The dashboard graphs show how the density of new parked cars dropped there between December 2019 and February 2020 following the emergence of the new coronavirus in China. Satellite imagery shows that the number of cars produced increases again in April.

(left) The red rectangular areas indicate a parking area occupied by new cars in an automobile factory near Beijing Airport in 2019 and 2020. During the closure period, the density of New cars have dropped considerably. (Right) Another example of a Singapore port shows the density of cars decreasing from the end of April.The government has decided to use this parking lot for temporary accommodation. of COVID-19 patients.

Image: NASA Goddard Space Flight Center

Taking high resolution images of night lights from space, a NASA-National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration satellite showed how the lights at the San Francisco Medical Center were shining brighter than usual in the midst of the coronavirus epidemic between January and April 2020 .

When San Francisco began to shelter in place in the middle of March, the city night lights detected from space did not change drastically. However, the University of California at San Francisco Medical Center thinned out from January to April.

Image: NASA Goddard Space Flight Center

NASA and ESA have previously publishedmaps documenting the change in air-polluting nitrogen dioxide in China following the pandemic. The sky cleared when the factories closed, the planes were immobilized, and people stopped commuting while quarantining at home. The dashboard now includes changes to nitrogen dioxide - which is released when fossil fuels are burned - in the United States, Europe, India and China.

Data from space agencies show that the amount of greenhouse gases released by humans into the atmosphere has also decreased as the pandemic slowed savings. This temporary drop, however, was not large enough to prevent the overall amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere from climbing. Carbon dioxide emissions appeared to return to normal in Beijing in April with the end of coronavi-induced blockagesrus, Ken Jucks sai, director of the NASAd research program at a press conference today. Nitrogen dioxide pollution has also rebounded in China, according to Jucks.

The dashboard will continue to be updated with satellite observations as the COVID-19 pandemic continues. "Our teams are now exhausted, but they are also very proud to present our work to a global audience today," said Josef Aschbacher, director of Earth observation programs at ESA.