Satellite Based Analyses on Potential Effects of the Covid19 Lockdown over Coastal Areas: The ESA-Race Soon Project

COVID-19 lockdown measures brought to a drastic reduction of anthropic impacts on the environment, including the marine-coastal system. EO data have the potential to monitor and diagnose the subsequent effects of the lockdown in terms of water quality. The ESA-RACE project SOON aims to link complex patterns that may arise from the environmental changes due to COVID-19 lockdown by using EO data, also seeking to assess connectivity between inland and marine system. Within this frame, here we present a holistic, satellite-based analysis of the spatial-temporal variability of environmental parameters in the North Adriatic Sea (NAS; Mediterranean basin), exploiting the synergy of OC and SST products from different sensors, as well as in situ hydrologic data. Our analysis indicates a favorable interplay of environmental variability and reduction of anthropogenic activity that results in negative anomalies of Chlorophyll-a and Total Suspended Matter with respect to the climatologic values.