The measures countries have taken in response to COVID-19, ranging from large-scale lockdowns to the mass deployment of personal protective equipment, have resulted in environmental effects. To study those, NASA, ESA (European Space Agency), and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) will host an Earth Observation Dashboard Hackathon, from June 23–29, taking advantage of powerful Earth observation tools.
During the weeklong, virtual event, participants will create teams and solve various socioeconomic and environmental challenges using data from the dashboard gathered over the duration of the pandemic. All coders, entrepreneurs, scientists, designers, storytellers, makers, builders, artists, and technologists are encouraged to participate in the hackathon. Registration is now open.
Challenge topics will include air and water quality, economic, social, and agricultural impacts, greenhouse gas effects, and interconnected Earth system impacts.
The hackathon is launching a year after the agencies introduced the Earth Observing Dashboard, an interactive data resource that provides policymakers and the public with a unique tool to probe the short- and long-term impacts of pandemic-related restrictions implemented around the world.
The Earth Observation Dashboard Hackathon will take place from June 23–29. Credits: Earth Observation Dashboard Hackathon
“NASA, ESA, JAXA represent a unique and valuable human asset: Earth-observing instruments in space that we can use every day to benefit society and advance scientific knowledge about our home planet,” said Thomas Zurbuchen, NASA’s associate administrator for science. “Our three space agencies realized that if we could combine forces, we could bring a more powerful set of analytical tools to understand the environmental, social and economic impacts of the global pandemic.”
Top panel (A, B): Covid-19 outbreak in China compared to concentration of particulate matter (PM 2.5) (Wikipedia.org; CC BY-SA 4.0). Panel C: Italian distribution of COVID-19 cases. Top right and bottom right panel (D, E): Levels of NO2 air pollutant (month of December) in China and North Italy (Source: NASA G.I.O.V.A.N.N.I.). Bottom panel (F): Nitrogen Dioxide pollution map over EUROPE as seen by Copernicus SENTINEL 5P satellite (Jan to Apr 2019). Credit: ESA – Copernicus SENTINEL 5P CC BY-SA IGO 3.0. via Airborne Coronavirus: Scientists In Italy Find Coronavirus On Air Pollution Particles, & The Journal of Infection on April 10, 2020, published “Regional air pollution persistence links to COVID-19 infection zoning.”
“In the face of the unprecedented COVID-19 pandemic, the three agencies created the Earth Observing Dashboard to release the joint analysis results of satellite data last June,” said Koji Terada, vice president and director general for the Space Technology Directorate I at JAXA. “We would like to welcome many proposals to solve the challenges using this website.”
“We have created a dashboard that allows us to have a time-series of critical information over different areas, and therefore compare information,” said Toni Tolker-Nielsen, director of Earth Observation Programmes at ESA. “I am particularly glad to say that this is not only a European effort, we have joined forces with global space powers NASA and JAXA and really combined our assets.”
Hackathon participants will interact with experts from NASA, ESA, and JAXA in chat channels and offer solutions to help improve the dashboard.
The Earth Observation Dashboard Hackathon is a NASA-led initiative organized in collaboration with Booz Allen Hamilton, Mindgrub and SecondMuse. For more information about the hackathon, visit:
http://www.eodashboardhackathon.org
Press courtesy of NASA
Sign up for daily news updates from CleanTechnica on email. Or follow us on Google News!
Have a tip for CleanTechnica, want to advertise, or want to suggest a guest for our CleanTech Talk podcast? Contact us here.
Former Tesla Battery Expert Leading Lyten Into New Lithium-Sulfur Battery Era — Podcast:
I don't like paywalls. You don't like paywalls. Who likes paywalls? Here at CleanTechnica, we implemented a limited paywall for a while, but it always felt wrong — and it was always tough to decide what we should put behind there. In theory, your most exclusive and best content goes behind a paywall. But then fewer people read it! We just don't like paywalls, and so we've decided to ditch ours. Unfortunately, the media business is still a tough, cut-throat business with tiny margins. It's a never-ending Olympic challenge to stay above water or even perhaps — gasp — grow. So ...
