Mapping Coronavirus from Space
Using satellite images to see the global impact of COVID-19
With the COVID-19 pandemic sweeping across the world, many countries have been quick to issue “stay at home” orders and nationwide lockdowns to prevent the spread of the contagious virus. With people around the world practicing social distancing, the pandemic has led to a severe disruption of public lives, whose effects can be seen clearly from space using satellite images and data.
Towards the end of 2019, a large number of pneumonia cases started appearing in the city of Wuhan, the capital of the Hubei province in China.
After documents regarding these pneumonia cases were leaked online, the local authorities confirmed these reports on December 31st, 2019.
They traced the source of the cases to a wet market in Wuhan. The Chinese authorities were quick to seal the wet market immediately.
As more and more people started falling sick, Chinese authorities imposed a lockdown in the city of Wuhan and other parts of the Huibei province on January 23rd, 2020. This was in an effort to quarantine the epicenter and prevent the spread of the virus to other Chinese towns and provinces. The lockdown of the Chinese province was condemned internationally, with the WHO calling it “unprecedented in public health history.” The effects of the lockdown in Wuhan can be seen in the following satellite images.
The first image below shows the traffic on the Yingwuzhou Yangtze River Bridge on January 12th, before the lockdown. Two weeks later, the streets have become empty, and life in China was transformed.
Emergency hospitals, like those in the pictures below, were set up in Wuhan at a rapid pace. Construction began on January 23rd, the same day the lockdown began, and the first patients were admitted just few days later on February 3rd.
The first picture below shows the area before the makeshift hospitals were made, and the second picture shows how the area was transformed at a pace that wasn’t earlier seen.
As the pandemic spread, similar emergency hospitals were set up all by the Chinese government to handle the sudden increase in hospitalizations.
By February, coronavirus had already spread across the globe to the Middle East to Europe. One of the countries which were hit the worst was Iran, which has been criticized for its handling of the crisis. The epicenter in Iran soon became the holy province of Qom, which reported the highest numbers of coronavirus cases in the country.
Every year around twenty million people visit the holy city since it is the main center of Shia scholarship. Shrine sites were immediately closed, and large public gatherings were banned. The following images show the effects of the banning of public gatherings in the holy city.
Skepticism about Iran’s figures about the coronavirus went to new heights after satellite imagery showed a large number of mass graves being dug at an unusual pace.
As more and more countries started imposing restrictions on its citizens, the effects of the stay at home restrictions were immediately noticeable.
On February 21st, a large outbreak in Italy was reported. In early March, Italy entered a complete lockdown. The following photos show the before and after pictures of the lockdown in Milan:
The effect is seen even more in the waters of Venice, which are usually quite busy throughout the year.
By late March, even more countries imposed stay at home orders. Satellite pictures clearly show the effect of the lockdown on prominent places around the world.
Taj Mahal, India:
Mecca, Saudi Arabia:
Vatican City:
Miami Beach, United States:
Impact on the Aviation Industry
One of the hardest-hit sectors has been the aviation industry. With demand for air travel decreasing, airport runways or taxiways have been converted into parking spaces for grounded airplanes at many airports. This can be seen in the following image from Frankfurt Airport in Germany or in the second image from Copenhagen Airport in Denmark.
The effect can be seen in even more detail by comparing the airspace over the Atlantic Ocean between North America and Europe. The airspace between North America and Europe is usually tightly filled, as seen in the first image. However, after restrictions had been imposed on citizens and travel bans were put into space, the number of planes over the airspace declined significantly.
The following images show the before, and after-effects of the travel bans on the airspace and air travel between North America and Europe.
Environment and Emissions
The decline in industrial activity around the world has led to global emissions of greenhouse gases reduce drastically. The following images show satellite data, which suggests a decrease in nitrogen dioxide emissions over Europe.
The first image show nitrogen dioxide emissions in January, and the second image shows the emissions in early March. A decrease in emissions, especially over northern Italy, is clearly noticeable.
The decrease in emissions can also be seen in China. The following images show satellite data for nitrogen dioxide emissions before and after the restrictions kicked in.
These satellite images show us the global impact of the pandemic. Mapping satellite data helps us understand how this is a global challenge of enormous scale. It shows how interconnected the world has become and how a virus originating on one side of the planet can have consequences for people on the other side. It also shows us that only if we all come together, irrespective of nationality, can we be able to come out of this pandemic.
