The COVID-19 Earth Observation Dashboard is a tri-agency collaboration that brings together current and historical satellite observations with analytical tools to create a user-friendly dashboard.

The three agencies include NASA, ESA (the European Space Agency), and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA). The Dashboard tracks key indicators of changes in air and water quality, climate, economic activity, and agriculture over time.

“When we began to see from space how changing patterns of human activity caused by the pandemic were having a visible impact on the planet, we knew that if we combined resources, we could bring a powerful new analytical tool to bear on this fast-moving crisis.”

—Thomas Zurbuchen, NASA associate administrator for science

Noticeable impacts of pandemic-related stay-at-home orders and reductions in the industrial activity that emerged from satellite observations include:

• Global air quality changes: One air pollutant, nitrogen dioxide (NO₂), which is primarily the result of burning fossil fuels for transportation and electricity generation, clearly shows in the satellite data. NO₂ has a lifetime of a few hours and is a precursor of ground-level ozone, making it a useful indicator of short-term air quality changes. 
  
• Changes in carbon dioxide (CO₂): Another critical component of our atmosphere, CO₂, is a climate-warming greenhouse gas. Because of CO₂’s high background concentration in the atmosphere and its long atmospheric lifetime of more than 100 years, short-term changes in atmospheric CO₂ resulting from anthropogenic emissions are very small relative to expected variations in abundances from the natural carbon cycle.
  
• Water quality changes: The dashboard presents targeted satellite observations of total suspended matter and chlorophyll concentrations in select coastal areas, harbors, and semi-enclosed bays. The data helps assess assessing what has produced these changes in water quality, how widespread they may be, and how long they last.

The agencies will be adding more information in the months ahead, including changes in global agricultural production. Understanding the extent of changes such as harvesting and planting due to disruptions in the food supply chain or the availability of labor are important in maintaining global and local markets and food security as the world recovers from the pandemic.