Paris (AFP)
The European Space Agency (ESA) and the European Commission unveiled an online platform on Friday to measure the impact of the coronavirus health crisis on the environment, using data provided by satellites.
Changes in air quality, water, changes in agricultural production, industrial activity, transport ... This tool is accessible to the general public on the internet (https://race.esa.int) , offers an interactive map of Europe where we can compare different environmental and economic parameters collected during the confinement period, 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" (22, editor's note) during containment and since the post-containment recovery, explains ESA Earth observation director Josef Aschbache in a press release.
By combining artificial intelligence and data from Earth observation satellites (in particular 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 AFP Yves-Louis Desnos, in charge of the data application in Earth observation division. at ESA.
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