The American Space Agency (NASA), the European Space Agency (ESA), and the Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) are tracking how the Corona virus affects the economy and the environment, as the three space agencies have combined what satellites monitored to build a new dashboard.

The Corona Virus Ground Monitor dashboard allows users to explore how the epidemic affected airport and freight traffic, city lights, agricultural production in locations around the world, and includes data on greenhouse gases, air quality, and water quality.

The Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) and the European Space Agency (ESA) Sentinel-1 satellite are showing the density of new cars parked at a factory near Beijing Capital International Airport.

The graphs on the dashboard show how the density of new cars parked there decreased between December 2019 and February 2020 after the new Corona virus appeared in China, and satellite imagery also shows a rise in the number of cars being produced again in April.

By taking high-resolution images of night lights from space, a NASA satellite showed how the lights of the San Francisco Medical Center brightened more than usual in the midst of a coronavirus outbreak between January and April 2020.

NASA and the European Space Agency earlier released maps documenting the change in nitrogen dioxide, which pollutes air in China as a result of the epidemic.

The sky became clear as factories closed, aircraft remained on the ground, and people stopped moving during the quarantine at home.

The dashboard now includes changes to nitrogen dioxide – which is released when burning fossil fuels – across the United States, Europe, India and China.

Space agency data show that the amount of greenhouse gases released by humans into the atmosphere has also decreased as economies slow down due to the epidemic.

Source : here