Visualizations by
Kel Elkins
Released on December 22, 2020
This animation shows the orbits of satellites that NASA is using to study the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the environment. It includes assets from our domestic partners, such as the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the U.S. Geological Survey, our international partners, such as the European Space Agency (ESA) and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), and our commercial partner Planet Labs.
Together, our combined measurements are providing the spatial and temporal breadth to more fully characterize and understand how society’s changing behavior during the pandemic is affecting the Earth system. The clouds used in this version are from a high resolution GEOS model run at 10 minute time steps interpolated down to the per-frame level.
Spacecraft included:
NASA Aqua Aura Suomi NPP: Suomi National Polar-orbiting Partnership OCO-2: Orbiting Carbon Observatory-2 Terra Landsat 7 Landsat 8 ISS: International Space Station
International Sentinel-1 Sentinel-2 Sentinel-5P GOSAT ALOS-2