Satellite images have shown the levels of pollution being emitted from Italy drop significantly amid the coronavirus lockdown.
The images and footage were taken over Northern Italy, which was the first part of the country to be placed on lockdown, and they show that the pandemic has caused a dramatic reduction in greenhouse gas emissions, something also witnessed in China, per the Independent.
Captured by the European Space Agency (ESA), a timelapse video shows the levels of Italy's pollution over the Po Valley region from the start of 2020 until this week. It captures the emissions of nitrogen dioxide, a noxious gas that is produced by power plants, cars, and factories.
Watch this timelapse of the reduction in Italy's pollution:Claus Zehner, who manages the Copernicus Sentinel-5P, said of the space agency's images: "Although there could be slight variations in the data due to cloud cover and changing weather, we are very confident that the reduction in emissions that we can see coincides with the lockdown in Italy causing less traffic and industrial activities."
This man reveals his symptoms of the coronavirus:The news comes as the World Health Organisation's most recent situation report revealed that there have been a total of 153,517 confirmed cases of COVID-19 globally, and 5,735 deaths.
Now, as the world comes together to fight the spread of COVID-19, Italians are trying to uplift each other's spirits as they remain under lockdown.
These Italian neighbors were filmed signing together:Europe is now the epicenter of the pandemic, and following this revelation, the US banned all flights from Europe, and on Saturday, President Trump extended the travel ban to include the UK and Ireland, per the Guardian.
Italy is the second most infected country outside of China, where the outbreak began in Wuhan, and per the WorldOMeter, at the time of writing, has 24,747 confirmed cases of COVID-19 and 1,809 people have lost their lives.
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