Coronavirus disease (COVID-19)

Normally busy, Frankfurt airport stands still amid the COVID-19 crisis. The image was captured by the Copernicus Sentinel-2 mission on 30 March 2020. Image: contains modified Copernicus Sentinel data (2020), processed by ESA.

Visit the United Nations Coronavirus Portal for more information about the coronavirus (COVID-19) disease

Space technologies and geospatial data can support governments in improving situational awareness and responding to the COVID-19 outbreak. Several institutions have published information products, such as web maps of confirmed infections and deaths, that are making use of the advantages of GIS. Others have used space technologies to track pollution levels across the world, highlighting a drop due to the restrictions imposed as a result of the pandemic. Yet others are using a combination of global navigation satellite systems technologies to map the position of critical infrastructure in geographical areas where there are reported cases.

The United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs, through its UN-SPIDER programme, has created this COVID-19 emergency response overview page to facilitate the discovery of examples of contributions of space technologies to addressing COVID-19 that are being published by government agencies, international and regional organizations, academia, civil society and the private sector. To find out more about the efforts of UNOOSA in advancing the use of space-based solutions for global health, please visit this web page.

To support users in finding relevant content, the list below can be filtered by keywords as well as format of the resource. The list does not seek to be exhaustive, nor to recommend particular sources, but to provide a selection of examples of how space technologies and the space community support response efforts to COVID-19.

UNOOSA will host a webinar on Space4Health on 14 May at 10am and 4pm Vienna, Austria time (UTC+2).

If you are using space technologies for responding to the COVID-19 pandemic and would like your work to be included on this page, please use this form to submit details.

Eurisy logo.
Source:Eurisy

This article from Eurisy illustrates how space-enabled solutions contribute their share in the fight against this pandemic, and shows what satellite data can tell about the extraordinary current situation.

Eurisy is a non profit association of over 30 governmental space offices and space... Read more

Format: Web page
Tag: (Indirect) impact of the virus
Image: IWMI.
Source:Down to Earth

In this article, a researcher at the International Water Management Institute (IWMI), a UN-SPIDER Regional Support Office (RSO), provides recommendations for managing the challenges posed by forecasted cyclones amid the COVID-19 pandemic in the region of South Asia. April is the prime month for cyclones to... Read more

Format: Web page
Tag: Risk assessments, (Indirect) impact of the virus