Welcome to Week 5 of this course, which looks at the impact of lockdown measures during the COVID-19 pandemic on atmospheric composition. This chapter was originally launched as a short course in Summer 2021 during the research phase of the ICOVAC project. It has now been integrated into this course to provide insights into the atmospheric changes which can result from major global events. Additonal information about ICOVAC can be found at: ESA ICOVAC and Royal Belgian Institute for Space Aeronomy - ICOVAC.

The global Coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic saw many governments take unprecedented measures to limit the spread of the virus. These measures included a mixture of social distancing, a ban on large gatherings, the closing of schools, universities, restaurants and other non-essential stores, and a reduction in air travel, the closure of borders and other non-essential travel restrictions.  Many of these measures have had a significant impact on the anthropogenic emissions in the atmosphere due to the drastic drop in road and air traffic and a strong reduction of industrial activities in non-essential sectors across the globe and many studies are evaluating the impact of this.

To assess how significant these reductions have been to air quality and climate or whether there were other factors playing a role, e.g. meteorological conditions and long-term emission trends, an ESA study titled 'Impact study of COVID-19 lockdown measures on air quality and climate' (ICOVAC) was developed with both observational and modelling activity components, led by the Royal Belgium Institute of Space Aeronomy (BIRA-IASB).

As well as the ICOVAC study, a tool called 'Rapid Action Coronavirus Earth observation' (RACE) was developed by ESA and the European Commission, in order to measure the impact of the coronavirus lockdown and monitor post lockdown recovery across Europe using Earth observation data and AI. RACE allows for the monitoring of key environmental parameters such as air and water quality changes, economic and human activities including industry, shipping, construction, traffic, and agricultural productivity. The EO data on the platform is provided by the Copernicus Sentinels, ESA Third Party Missions, as well as many other EO satellites.

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Featured Educators

• Dr Christophe Lerot, Remote Sensing Scientist, BIRA-IASB  
• Dr Andreas Richter, Senior Scientist, University of Bremen
• Dr Jieying Ding, Air Quality Scientist, KNMI

Thanks to all of the contributing scientists for self-filming during the COVID-19 lockdown.

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