TRI-AGENCY DATASET

NASA

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration is an independent agency of the U.S. federal government responsible for the civilian space program, as well as aeronautics and space research. NASA was established in 1958, succeeding the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics

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ESA

The European Space Agency is an intergovernmental organization of 22 member states dedicated to the exploration of space. Established in 1975 and headquartered in Paris, ESA has a worldwide staff of about 2,200 in 2018 and an annual budget of about €6.5 billion in 2021.

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JAXA

The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency is the Japanese national aerospace and space agency. Through the merger of three previously independent organizations, JAXA was formed on 1 October 2003.

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ABOUT THE DATA

In an effort to mitigate the spread of the novel coronavirus, government and public health officials have enacted various social distancing practices and other measures to limit human contact, at times placing entire countries on lockdown. As human behavior has changed during the pandemic, ongoing measurements from Earth observing instruments have detected concurrent changes in environmental factors, such as a drop in the air pollutant nitrogen dioxide (NO2).

Data showed here from the Tropospheric Monitoring Instrument (TROPOMI jointly developed by The Netherlands and ESA) on the European Space Agency’s (ESA) Copernicus Sentinel-5P satellite and the Netherlands-Finnish instrument Ozone Monitoring Instrument (OMI) on the Aura satellite, show significant drops in regional nitrogen dioxide (NO2) levels that coincide with reduced traffic and industrial activity.

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WORLD, AIR QUALITY

TROPOMI observations

1. Comparing the same timeframes in 2019, averaged NO2 concentrations from the first day of the lockdown on March 25-April 20, 2020 data show reductions of about 40-50% of air pollution.

However, reductions in nitrogen dioxide were not consistent throughout India. Northeast India showed nearly constant values of NO2 levels due to ongoing operations at coal-based power plants, which did not reduce electric power generation significantly during the lockdown.

Nitrogen_dioxide_concentrations_over_Eur

2. In Madrid, Milan, Rome, and Paris, for example, TROPOMI data show about a 50% reduction in NO2 from March 13-April 13, 2020 compared to the same months the year before. These reductions coincide with implementation of strict quarantine measures across Europe.