In April, ESA sought proposals on how space assets can help understand and characterise the paralysing effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. The joint first prize in this contest has been awarded to a proposal on how Copernicus Sentinel-2 images can reveal coronavirus-related effects on air traffic activity – an idea that will be included in the recently created ESA-European Commission 'Rapid Action on Coronavirus and Earth Observation’ dashboard. The proposal, submitted by Mauricio Pamplona Segundo (University of South Florida, USA) and team, exploited the effect of moving objects in Copernicus Sentinel-2 imagery to identify aviation activity – as shown here. The team explored the vicinities of 30 European airports with the highest number of passengers (in 2019), and identified flying and parked aeroplanes in images from Copernicus Sentinel-2.