COVID-19 (Coronavirus Disease) Map Animation 21.01.2020-01.01.2021

This cartogram maintains the same area over time, rather than grow in size. The animation shows that of reported cases, so it may reflect the places that have tests and can afford to test and choose to test, as much as the actual spread of the disease itself.
While the disease seemed contained within China over the first weeks of its existence – only few small occurrences such as in France and Germany are briefly visible – but then starts spreading towards Europe towards the end of February until two months on the cases outside China by far outweigh the ones that have been reported within China. Towards the end of April, the USA are growing in size quite considerably and turn into the new main hotspot of the epidemic. After mid-2020, growing shares of cases can also be observed in South America (especially Brazil) and Russia, followed by a growth of cases in India. Towards the end of the year the resurgence and second wave hitting Europe becomes visible by its again increasing size.

As noted in our main blog article related to Covid-19, it is important to keep in mind that the picture provided here reflects the situation as it is reported by the individual national health authorities. Case numbers have throughout the course of the pandemic believed to be higher than the reported cases, while the unknown figures may vary significantly between countries. Numbers from poorer countries, especially on the African continent, are believed to be highly underreported. This can – amongst other issues (including political ones) – partly be explained through different testing strategies.

This cartogram animation uses satellite observations from NASA’s Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MOD17) that is able to detect the cumulative composite Gross Primary Production (GPP) of the biosphere on land. This productivity is nature’s ‘fuel for life‘ as it gives us an idea of how the biosphere is utilising the sun’s energy to support its organisms, turning plants into the biomass factories that support life higher up the foodchain.
When and where nature ecosystems are most productive depends a lot on the time of the year. The animation of productivity shows how the changing seasons determine the variability of energy production throughout the year. Distribution of landmasses lead to the tropics being over-proportionally present in this image, especially in the northern hemisphere’s winter.
The following (static) map shows how the annual picture that emerges when adding up nature’s productivity throughout the year. Here it becomes clearer that not only solar radiation, but also other factors have an influence on the productivity of terrestrial ecosystems: Desert areas, such as Sahara or the Australian outback, remain small in this picture.

All maps above show the land surface resized according to its annual gross primary production (GPP) in terms of their carbon currency (g C m-2). Each transformed grid cell in the map is proportional to the total (annual or monthly) production in that area which is also indicated through the colours that are overlaid.