Due to the pandemic cronavirus and the global efforts to combat against its spread, 2020 has been a highly unusual year. Throughout the whole year, we have imaged many globally concerned events with our satellites. Below we select 10 images to review the year.

In January, responding to the sudden coronavirus outbreak in Wuhan, China tried all best on controlling the spread. In order to treat serious patients two temporary hospitals named Leishenshan and Huoshenshan were built within 2 weeks. And stadiums, conference halls and large dorms were changed into temporary medical places with mild patients. The above pictures depict Huoshenshan hospital built up from nothing within 10 days.

March 2020, more and more countries announced national lockdown and called the citizens to stay home in controlling Covid-19 spread. The images comparison above depict the change from lockdown to unlock in Daegu where the coronavirus infection was most serious in Korea. The left was imaged on March 16, 2020 with few cars, and the right imaged on May 10, 2019 shows many cars are running at a normal amount as the country has unlocked home quarantine.

April 9, after 76 days all-round lockdown on whole Wuhan where coronavirus was firstly realized and emphasized, the city began to unlock from this day. The left image depicts that few traffics driving only for special purposes, such as medical and living. And the right image depicts that public traffics resumed after 76-days lockdown.

June 24, Russia held the annual WWII victory parade in coronavirus shadow. The parade featured some 13,000 military personnel, 234 armored vehicles, and 75 aircraft performing the traditional flypass. SV-1 captured the sprinkling truck working on Moscow Red Square where the Military Parade for Victory Day was held one hour earlier on June 24, 2020.

Beginning of July, Floods hit the prefectures of Kumamoto and Kagoshima on the southern Japanese island of Kyushu. As a result of flooding and landslides, 77 people were confirmed dead and approximately 7 were missing, and approximately 15,335 buildings were destroyed. The above image depicts that Kuma District, Kumamoto was still soaked into the water after half month of heavy rains.

 

End of July, Japanese bulk carrier -MV Wakashio bulk carrier ran aground at Pointe d'Esny, a known sanctuary for rare wildlife in Mauritius. It leaked hundreds of tons of fuel oil off the country’s coast. Greenpeace Africa warned that "thousands" of animal species were "at risk of drowning in a sea of pollution, with dire consequences for Mauritius's economy, food security and health". GF-3 SAR satellite capture the leaking Wakashio.

August 4, a large amount of ammonium nitrate stored at Beirut Port, the capital of Lebanon, exploded, causing 204 deaths, 6,500 injuries, and US$15 billion in property damage, and leaving an estimated 300,000 people homeless. The SV-1 image depicts the most destructive area of the Port that used to be land.

In second half of 2020, wildfires raged in the west areas of USA, causing hundreds of thousands of people to evacuate and more than 6,700,000 acres of land to burn. GF-1 satellite image revealed widespread fire activity in Jackson County, OR. The left image shows the smoke coming from the fire, and the right was processed into false-color image to highlight the burned and burning area.

October 30, a magnitude 7.0 earthquake struck Turkish city izmir. It was the deadliest earthquake in 2020, 116 people died, over 1,000 injured and dozens of buildings were either damaged or completely collapsed. The above image (R) shows rescue tents were built up for the homeless.

December 8, China and Nepal just announced a new official height for Mt Everest, the world’s highest peak 8848.86 m, 0.86 m higher than ever before. The image depicts the brand-new Everest peak, taken in November 2020 by GF-2 satellite.

 

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