Table 2.
Different applications of remote sensing during the COVID-19 pandemic. This list is not exhaustive but summarises the findings of this review.
| Application | Data source | Reference |
|---|---|---|
| Updated land use maps for disease response planning. | VHR imagery | HOT, 2021; Kanga et al., 2021 |
| Monitor changes to activity and distribution of people. | Night-time lights data (VIIRS) | Deep and Gupta, 2021; Duncombe, 2020; GMS, 2020; Roberts, 2021 |
| Estimate mortality in underreported regions. | VHR imagery | Besson et al., 2020 |
| Identify possible infection cases in crowds. | Drone based thermal imagery | Guenot, 2021; Pandey et al., 2021; UNICEF Supply Division, n.d. |
| Monitor cargo shipping congestion around ports. | VHR imagery | Dharmani, 2020 |
| Alternative data source to substitute postponed field excursion. | Various | Jawak et al., 2021; Maroney and Robillard, 2020; Politzer, 2020 |
| Measure reduced air pollution emissions and changes to air quality during lockdowns. | OMI, TROPOMI, MODIS data products | Ghahremanloo et al., 2021; He et al., 2021; Le et al., 2020; Venter et al., 2020; Roman-Gonzalez et al., 2020 |
| Measure changes in marine and freshwater quality during lockdowns. | OLCI (Sentinel 3), PlanetScope, Sentinel 2 MSI, Landsat 8 OLI | Aman et al., 2020; Avtar et al., 2020; Cherif et al., 2020; Mousazadeh et al., 2021; Muduli et al., 2021; Okuku et al., 2021; Wagh et al., 2021 |
| Automatically Identify objects on the ground that indicate economic activity. | VHR imagery (Planet, xView) | Chen et al., 2021; Minetto et al., 2021 |
| Measure change in flying aircraft activity | Sentinel 2 MSI | Segundo et al., 2021 |
| Observe reduction in tourism activity around African Protected Areas | VIIRS (VNP46A1) | Anand & Kim, 2021 |
| Measure Crop status to predict impacts on food security | MODIS | Balwinder-Singh et al., 2020 |
| Estimate economic losses in the fishery sector. | PlanetScope | Avtar et al., 2021 |
| Supply meteorological data for epidemiological studies of environmental disease determinants | Weather satellites | Correa-Araneda et al., 2021; S. Gupta et al., 2020; Qi et al., 2020; Zhang et al., 2021 |
| Supply air quality data for environmental disease determinants studies | OMI, TROPOMI | Copat et al., 2020; Filippini et al., 2020; Ogen, 2020 |