For this end of week exercise, we will have a hands-on look at the Rapid Action on Coronavirus and EU (RACE) platform, which was mention in Topic 5a.

1. Firstly, go to the RACE dashboard by clicking here.
2. For this task, we will look at the air quality for Paris, France. So, choose France from the 'available countries' list on the left hand side of the screen.
3. Now, zoom in to Paris, this will be the area with the blue circle with a 7. You can click on that blue circle and the map will zoomed in, showing Paris on the left side of the map. Now, click on the circle with the number 2 and you will be zoomed in further.
4. Click on the Paris Air Quality symbol, which will bring up a graph on the right side of the page, with the title 'Paris, Air Quality - TROPOMI: Spatial average over the city area of bi-weekly tropospheric nitrogen dioxide (NO₂)'
5. Next, lets have a look at the graph which shows tropospheric NO₂ as measured by the TROPOMI instrument aboard Sentinel-5P. You can view this graph in full screen by clicking on the fullscreen box on the top right of the graph.
6. Have a look at the first period of high restrictions in France, which is between March to June 2020, shown as a dark pink bar. Now, have a look at the similar period between March and June 2019 and look at the green line with dots, can you see a difference in the average concentrations of NO₂? Is 2020 higher, lower or about the same as 2019? You can zoom into the graph by using the mouse wheel on your computer to get a closer look.
7. Have a look at some other countries, is there a similar pattern between periods of high restrictions and levels of NO₂?