COVID-19: NASA Satellite Data Show Drop in Air Pollution Over U.S.
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- Visualizations by:
- Amy Moran and
- Trent L. Schindler
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- Written by:
- Bryan Duncan and
- Heather Hanson
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- Scientific consulting by:
- Bryan Duncan
- View full credits
These images show the impact the spread of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) has had on reducing air pollution in the United States as widespread lockdowns and shelter-in-place orders have been put in place. The images show a reduction in the levels of nitrogen dioxide (NO2)—a noxious gas emitted by motor vehicles, power plants, and industrial facilities—as measured by the Ozone Monitoring Instrument (OMI) on NASA’s Aura satellite in March 2020. The “without stay-at-home orders” images show average monthly NO2 concentrations during March and April from 2015 through 2019, while the “during stay-at-home orders” images show average monthly concentrations in March and April 2020.
These improvements in air quality have come at a high cost, as communities grapple with the impacts of COVID-19. The data indicate that the NO2 levels in March and April 2020 are much lower on average across the United States when compared to the mean of 2015 to 2019.
Credits
Please give credit for this item to:
NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center
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Animator
- Amy Moran (Global Science and Technology, Inc.) [Lead]
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Data visualizer
- Trent L. Schindler (USRA) [Lead]
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Writers
- Bryan Duncan (NASA/GSFC) [Lead]
- Heather Hanson (Global Science and Technology, Inc.) [Lead]
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Scientists
- Bryan Duncan (NASA/GSFC) [Lead]
- Joanna Joiner (NASA/GSFC)
- Lok Lamsal (University of Maryland, Baltimore County)
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Technical support
- Ian Jones (ADNET Systems, Inc.)
- Laurence Schuler (ADNET Systems, Inc.)
Datasets used in this visualization
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Aura
ID: 147 -
Aura Ozone
ID: 264 -
Terra and Aqua BMNG (Blue Marble: Next Generation)
ID: 508Credit: The Blue Marble data is courtesy of Reto Stockli (NASA/GSFC).
This dataset can be found at: http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/BlueMarble/
See all pages that use this dataset
Note: While we identify the data sets used in these visualizations, we do not store any further details, nor the data sets themselves on our site.