Quiet Planet

The COVID-19 outbreak and the resulting social distancing recommendations and related restrictions have led to numerous short-term changes in economic and social activity around the world, all of which may have impacts on our environment. Your challenge is to use space-based data to document the local to global environmental changes caused by COVID-19 and the associated societal responses.

CarbonHeating

Summary

Since the coronavirus pandemic and the establishment of isolation policies, it has been noted that many countries have decreased their rates of air pollution. This proves that the presence of human activity compromises the quality of the air on the planet, being the case of much concern as would be the configuration of the atmosphere when they return to full activities. Another factor are the recent studies that relate the increase in the number of deaths by COVID-19 to local pollution levels. Our project has as central objective the creation of a digital tool, which we call CarbonHeating, which basically correlates real-time satellite data of natural phenomena (air composition and humidity)

How We Addressed This Challenge

When we see the global need for the effectiveness of social isolation and based on our academic training as physicists, we aspire to bring science in a clear and simple way to all people, regardless of their social, economic and cultural level. Therefore, we believe that at any social level, science should be accessed and requested when requested, in no way should it be excluded. Thus, we, from the Gaia Team, had the idea of ​​correcting this information deficit and joined with the problems arising from COVID-19, in order to provide the population with scientific comfort and also a way to ensure and contribute to the practices and forms of social isolation of a group, city or country, as well as preventive measures of individual health.

How We Developed This Project

Through the daily analysis of the gases and their concentrations in the atmosphere, making a relation with the total of deaths and infected, if all the variables had an increase or decrease in a proportional way, this would validate our response. Based on the assumption that the virus proliferates more in polluted air, and based on some recent studies, the correlation between air quality and the rate of infection appears as follows: countries with the highest number of pollutants in the air also have a higher death rate. Therefore, our application aims to indicate, using user data, such as country, state and city, what the local situation would be like, for example, if the air conditions related to COVID-19 would be breathable and healthy, and would indicate the possible actions for people, such as mandatory use of masks and about circulation in the environment. In addition, of course, it would provide simplified and understandable data.

Project Demo

With the digital tool, a large part of the population would have access to this type of technology through tables, graphs and infographics from each continent, country, state and city. By correlating these data so that their access is easy and simple, a quick and effective analysis would be provided. We analyzed the variables, such as CH4, CO2, NO2, CO, total of infected cases and total of deaths by COVID-19, considering the assumption that the virus can proliferate in a more concentrated and faster way in regions where there is a greater agglomeration of some gases, it can also occur late for the same reason.

Data & Resources

1.      Cui Y, Zhang Z-F, Froines J, et al. Air pollution and case fatality of SARS in the People’s Republic of China: an ecologic study. Environ Heal. 2003;2(1). doi:10.1186/1476-069x-2-15

2.      Dia da Terra: Principais cidades do mundo têm redução de até 60% na poluição do ar. https://www.cnnbrasil.com.br/internacional/2020/04/22/principais-cidades-do-mundo-tem-reducao-de-ate-60-na-poluicao-do-ar. Accessed May 31, 2020.

3.      JAXA for Earth. http://earth.jaxa.jp/en.html. Accessed May 31, 2020.

4.      Earthdata. https://earthdata.nasa.gov/. Accessed May 31, 2020.

5.      US Department of Commerce NGML. Global Monitoring Laboratory - Carbon Cycle Greenhouse Gases.

6.      US Department of Commerce NESRL. CarbonTracker CT2019 - ESRL Global Monitoring Division.

7.      Earth’s CO2 Home Page. https://www.co2.earth/. Accessed May 31, 2020.

8.      US Department of Commerce NGML. NOAA/ESRL Global Monitoring Laboratory - THE NOAA ANNUAL GREENHOUSE GAS INDEX (AGGI).

Tags
Air pollution, coronavirus, aspheric pollution, Isolation policies
Global Judging
This project was submitted for consideration during the Space Apps Global Judging process.