Space for Good: Special Report – June 2021
Monitoring and the Value of Space Data
Despite
the news stories that started to emerge in January 2020 about an unknown virus, few foresaw just how quickly the world would change due to COVID-19. Yet by the end of March 2020, most countries in Europe and many in the rest of the world had implemented lockdown restrictions. Even before the virus had spread across Europe, data from the Copernicus
The European Space Agency (ESA) did not simply continue with
Sentinel-5P satellite showed drastic falls in emissions of NO2 in China’s
its Earth observation (EO) programme as before. Instead, along
Hubei province coinciding with lockdown. This indicated a significant fall in
with other international and national space agencies, ESA quickly
man-made pollution, which was later also seen over major cities and regions in
explored how it could best use its technology and expertise to
Europe as they had quarantine measures implemented.
support organizations and individuals through the crisis.
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