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In This Report
The Value of Space Data
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Near real-time, large scale monitoring is something satellites are uniquely positioned to do. As the pandemic spread, satellite Earth observation and location data was used to uncover significant atmospheric changes across the globe and solve challenges including traffic congestion at national borders and missing weather forecasting data.
Data Dashboards
European and global dashboards were developed and launched within the first few months of the pandemic to provide data on human activities and a range of environmental parameters, such as air and water quality. At a time when millions more people could be pushed into chronic hunger, these dashboards can provide valuable data for sectors such as agriculture.
Funding Initiatives
Starting in late March 2020, the European Space Agency (ESA) spearheaded initiatives to fund innovation addressing COVID-19-related topics through a series of funding calls. These included national and European challenges. Later funding calls focussed on being prepared for future outbreaks and post-pandemic recovery.
Contests and Hackathons
Pandemic-focussed contests and hackathons produced some truly innovative ideas during 2020. Thousands of individuals and organizations from over 150 countries took part to develop ideas that used space data and/or technologies to tackle challenges presented by the virus, resulting in new hardware, software and apps for personal and business use.
Telemedicine and Health
As both public and healthcare professionals sought to reduce face-to-face contact during the pandemic, every country saw significant falls in visits to healthcare providers. As a result, telemedicine solutions came to the fore. Other new health-related products made use of technologies originally designed for or tested in space.
Apps
Numerous apps have been developed to support individuals and organizations through the crisis. These range from ones specifically designed to help avoid the spread of the virus to others aimed at managing the transport of goods and supply of services.
