The ongoing pandemic has lead to a severe disruption of public life, with people around
the globe practicing social distancing measures in order to fight the spread of the virus.
In this video we want to focus on the consequences of the pandemic, that can be observed from
space using satellite data.
Towards the end of 2019, an unusual number of pneumonia cases were noticed in Wuhan,
the capital of the Hubei Province in China.
After documents about this were leaked online, local authorities confirmed these reports
on December 31, 2019.
One day later, this wet Market in Wuhan was closed.
Investigations revealed that two thirds of the early patients had links to this market,
which is why many assume this is where the outbreak originated.
On January 20, the number of reported cases rose to 136 and the first cases occurred in
the cities of Beijing and Shenzhen.
Three days later, on January 23, the central government decided a lockdown in Wuhan and
other cities in the Hubei Province.
This image shows traffic on the Yingwuzhou Yangtze River Bridge on January 12th, before
the lockdown.
2 weeks later, the streets are empty and life in the China was transformed.
Within weeks, Emergency hospitals were set up in Wuhan, like the this one.
Construction was started on the same evening as the lockdown began on January 23.
And the first patients were admitted 11 days later, on February 3.
Another field hospital was also set up within a short period of time.
For this, the free space of a parking lot was used.
News Reporters: "Malaysia has confirmed its first locally transmitted case of the novel
coronavirus"
"The Philippines has reported the first death"
"Tonight the virus is spread from China to 47 countries"
"Irans government has announced a spike in the number of coronavirus cases"
"Inside the Islamic Republic death toll rates are rather misleading.
It is clear however that the holy city of Qom is the epicenter of that outbreak"
Iran is the worst affected country In the middle east, with the Qom Province reporting
the highest numbers of confirmed cases.
Every year around twenty million pilgrims visit the city, since it is a large center
for Shi’a scholarship.
Due to the outbreak, large gatherings were banned and shrine sites were closed.
skepticism rose regarding the official number of cases as Satellite imagery revealed that
a large number new graves were created at an unusual speed.
On February 21, a large outbreak in Italy was reported.
In early March the country entered a complete lockdown.
The affects of those restrictions can be seen in Venice.
The waters that are usually crowded with boats came to a standstill as Europe became the
new center of the global pandemic.
New Reporters:"India has become the latest and largest country to introduce a nationwide
lockdown"
"Over in Saudi Arabia officials abruptly stopped issuing tourist visas to foreigners planning
Umrah pilgrimages."
"Take a look at the Saint Peters Square at the Vatican, empty"
"A drive trough testing station for coronavirus"
"This makes testing faster and easier than before"
"The US is now leading the world in the number of confirmed coronavirus cases.
"New York has become the epicenter of the outbreak in the US"
"19 million New Yorkers are being asked to stay at home as much as possible"
One industry heavily affected by the outbreak is aviation.
In addition to legal restrictions such as travel bans, demand is at a level that was
totally unimaginable just a few months ago.
Airports worldwide have therefore converted their runways or taxiways into parking spaces
for grounded planes.
Such as can be seen here at Frankfurt International Airport in Germany.
Or these images that show Copenhagen Airport in Denmark.
This map shows a snapshot of the airspace over the Atlantic on March 2, 2020.
Both culturally and economically Europe and North America are closely linked and therefore
the airspace is tightly filled.
For comparison, let's look at a snapshot from March 30th, taken at the same day of the week
at and at the exact same time as the one before.
The consequences of declining industrial activity and traffic can also be seen from satellite
data that records the changes in nitrogen dioxide emissions over a period of time.
In Europe, a decrease in emissions in Northern Italy is clearly visible.
When we look at China the drop in emissions is also apparent, with a particularly strong
change at the end of January, when the lockdown measures came into effect in many regions.
The fact that we can identify the effects of the virus on the basis of satellite data
once more shows that this is a global challenge of enormous scale.
But it should also be noted that satellite imagery is just one piece of capturing what
is happening.
Just as every event is captured in a number of different ways.
As impressive as the big picture is, the small one can be too.
For example, the many smartphone clips that show tragedy, frustration but also hope and
social solidarity in this difficult time.
- collective singing - - singing happy birthday -