The European Space Agency (ESA) and the European Commission unveiled an online platform on Friday to measure the environmental impact of the coronavirus health crisis. This is thanks to the data provided by satellites.
Changes in air quality, water, changes in agricultural production, industrial activity, transport … This tool accessible to the general public on the internet, offers an interactive map of Europe where we can compare different environmental and economic parameters collected during the confinement, with those of previous years.
The platform called RACE (Rapid Action Coronavirus Earth observation) “shows how data from Earth observation can illustrate both socio-economic and environmental changes in all European countries and ESA member states” during the containment and since the post recovery -confinement, explains the director of Earth observation at ESA, Josef Aschbache, in a press release.
Asparagus and air traffic
By combining artificial intelligence and data from Earth observation satellites (notably from the European Copernicus program), RACE makes it possible to monitor both the asparagus harvest in the German Brandenburg region and the air traffic at Barcelona airport, water quality in the Mediterranean or the concentration of chlorophyll in a given area.
Various data tables complete the images and are commented on by scientists. The indicators, some of which date back to 2014, will continue to be supplied until the end of the year, said Yves-Louis Desnos, in charge of the Earth observation data application division at ESA. . (ats / nxp)
Created: 05.06.2020, 22h54
–
