The European Space Agency (ESA) is Europe’s gateway to space. Its mission is to shape the development of Europe’s space capability and ensure that investment in space continues to deliver benefits to the citizens of Europe and the world.
Find out more about space activities in our 23 Member States, and understand how ESA works together with their national agencies, institutions and organisations.
Exploring our Solar System and unlocking the secrets of the Universe
Go to topicProtecting life and infrastructure on Earth and in orbit
Go to topicUsing space to benefit citizens and meet future challenges on Earth
Go to topicMaking space accessible and developing the technologies for the future
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This graph shows the averaged nitrogen dioxide concentrations over five major European cities. The upper panel shows concentrations (using a 14-day moving average) in 2019 compared to 2020 using data from the Copernicus Sentinel-5P satellite, while the lower panel shows in situ observations.
The shades of grey denote the lockdown periods in 2020, moving progressively from strict (dark grey) to loose (light grey) measures. The percentages shown in red represent the column reduction in 2020 compared to 2019 over the same period.
Read full story: Air pollution in a post-COVID-19 world