ArtCenter Gallery - SCIAMACHY instrument on the European Space Agency’s (ESA’s) Envisat satellite. Image produced by S. Beirle, U. Platt, and T. Wagner of the University of Heidelberg’s Institute for Environmental Physics. University of Heidelberg.

SCIAMACHY instrument on the European Space Agency’s (ESA’s) Envisat satellite. Image produced by S. Beirle, U. Platt, and T. Wagner of the University of Heidelberg’s Institute for Environmental Physics. University of Heidelberg.

Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, Europeans are traveling much less, and as a result the nitrogen dioxide (NO2) vertical column density (VCD) on the continent has declined significantly. The scale is 1015 molecules/cm-2. The other image shows the much higher nitrogen dioxide levels between January 2003 and June 2004.