The year 2024 saw unprecedented climate records, with the hottest July and summer on record, as well as the earliest Category 4 hurricane. Satellite data has been crucial in providing undeniable evidence of the human-driven global warming crisis, from rising sea levels to melting glaciers and changing animal habitats. This blog explores how satellite technology is revolutionizing our understanding of the climate crisis and empowering policymakers to take action. Climate change, greenhouse gas, sea level rise.
Satellite Sentinels: A Map of a Changing Climate
The climate crisis is a multi-faceted, complex issue that demands a comprehensive view of the vast systems at play on our planet. But satellite technology really shines on this. These space-based sentinels are measuring the amount of carbon dioxide in our atmosphere, monitoring ice caps and glaciers as they melt and even following changes in patterns of wildlife migration — part of the expanding data that is helping reveal what we really know about global change.
Connecting the dotsAs Cedric David, who is a scientist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory explained, “The only way to link together the myriad processes involved in how our planet works is to interpret that complex web of evidence over time in an explicit story.” We have far less military equipment in space than we do on the ocean, and for this, we need a continuous force of what are essentially sky sentinels. Much like the way we have annual checkups, these satellites provide an annual doctor’s visit to our home planet and allow scientists for the first time to diagnose its “health,” as well as track changes in it — many of them somewhat alarming and most due to human activity.
The weight of the invisible: measuring unseen impacts with satellite gravimetry
Satellite technology can also measure more subtle changes in our planet’s gravitational field. Based on a process known as satellite gravimetry, scientists are able to see the exact decline in ice mass and subsequent sea-level rise, even changes to groundwater supplies. “Satellites can perceive what our eyes cannot: variations in groundwater storage hundreds of meters below ground that would otherwise require decades or even centuries to be detected, if we were using only the observed changes in groundwater levels,” said David. That’s just mind-blowing.”
This unseen data is essential in providing the full scope to our understanding of the climate crisis. By tracking variations in the Earth’s gravitational field, researchers can determine the knock-on effects of melting ice and decreasing groundwater supplies as well as an increase in both the number and strength of natural disasters. It provides policymakers with the data they need to make informed — but also often hard — decisions when tackling important issues like climate change.
The Reality Behind the Headlines: Satellite Data and Denial of Climate Change
The continuous data coming from satellites, providing an indisputable and irrefutable track record of the changing climate of the Earth, is not a secret weapon against denialism on climate. “David explains: “We have a seemingly endless repetition of data that is showing us over and over and over again … the climate, mother Earth, she changes, and it’s human behavior behind it. Data of this type surely ought to determine our approach.
With the incontrovertible evidence from these orbital sentinels, scientists are in a position to effectively shut down climate skeptics and lobbying efforts for serious action. Such data can be leveraged (using simple linear regression, for example) at global climate conferences like the COP meetings to garner support from policymakers looking to effect change by driving necessary policy and regulation passing power to immediately mitigate, what continues to be a prevailing enormous threat — Climate Crisis. David says, «No information, no communication. However, in many cases satellite data is useful even in the short run. This data utility ranges from hurricane tracking to pinpointing specific loci of greenhouse gas emissions, supporting our shared concern for climate change.
