The recently released first images from NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) have revealed new views of space in exquisite, never-before-seen detail. Webb’s image covers a patch of sky roughly the size of a grain of sand held at arm’s length by someone on the ground — and reveals thousands of galaxies in a tiny fraction of the vast universe.
The image reveals the depths of the universe and is a window into time. The faintest, tiniest glimmers of light in these pictures are images of galaxies as they existed more than 13 billion years ago, near the very beginning of time. Not only will the telescope allow us to peer into the past, but it will also help answer nagging questions from how galaxies evolved to the composition of exoplanet atmospheres.
According to NASA, “Webb will solve mysteries in our solar system, look beyond distant worlds around other stars, and explore the mysterious structures and origins of our universe and our place in it.”
However, while JWST will allow us to look into the past and enlighten us about the origins of the universe, our future on this planet remains uncertain. As global temperatures rise, the last few decades have seen a significant increase in the propensity and intensity of extreme weather events.
Climate change is emerging as one of the most critical problems of our age, and solving this problem requires looking into the future. Developments and innovations in remote sensing technology have allowed satellites to serve as this lens and have proven instrumental in helping to address climate change issues.
Satellite data and climate change
The role of satellite data in continuously monitoring and measuring climate change is identical to JWST’s role in observing the depths of the universe.
In fact, according to the Global Climate Observing System, more than 50% of the major climate variables that are key indicators of Earth’s changing climate can only be tracked by satellites.
For example, the European Space Agency’s (ESA) Climate Change Initiative generates reliable and long-term data on 21 major climate variables. This broad set of satellite data helps identify our vulnerability to climate change by monitoring and predicting extreme weather events, such as floods, wildfires, droughts, heat waves and melting glaciers, among others.
Assessment of climate indicators
To mitigate and manage the growing threat of extreme climate events to various aspects of our society and businesses, data-driven climate intelligence becomes crucial.
Because most climate variables can only be observed from space, satellites provide a wealth of valuable information to understand the drivers and impacts of climate change. There are currently about 162 satellites in orbit that continuously monitor various climate variables. Some of the climate variables that can be continuously monitored by satellites are as follows:
Forest fires
In recent years, there has been a sharp increase in the frequency and intensity of forest fires. Because wildfires are closely related to climate change, they tend to reinforce each other. Accordingly, as the climate crisis worsens, fire monitoring can play a huge role in minimizing risks.
In this regard, satellites have emerged as an effective surveillance tool that makes it possible to monitor vast areas in real time. Satellite data also provide valuable insight into wildfire behavior, such as patterns and likely courses. This, along with other essential information such as vegetation in the region, weather conditions that trigger fires, etc., can help create maps of potential hotspots and even help predict fires.
Due to their high temporal resolution and ability to detect fires in remote areas, the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) satellites are polar satellites that have played a significant role in detecting fires worldwide.
Wildfires in the United States visualized in SpaceTime™ from July 15 to August 15, 2021. ©BSA, 2022
GHG emissions
Greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions increase heat in the atmosphere, leading to global warming. As long as emissions continue, the global temperature will also continue to rise. Therefore, monitoring and mapping greenhouse gas emissions is crucial for developing strategies to reduce them. Satellite data plays an important role in this regard as it has the ability to pinpoint emissions.
In 2009, Japan launched Greenhouse Gas Monitoring Satellite (GOSAT), the world’s first greenhouse gas monitoring satellite. Since then, several more sophisticated satellites have been launched for the same purpose. Now, Copernicus Sentinel-5P, launched in 2018 by the European Space Agency (ESA), is known to be the world’s most advanced pollution monitoring satellite. Most recently, in 2021. ESA has announced its new space missionwhich will be able to track human-caused GHG emissions from space.
Emissions data in Blue Sky Analytics’ visualization platform, SpaceTime™. ©BSA, 2022
floods
Climate change is causing more frequent floods intense and frequent. Accordingly, reliable data is of utmost importance as it can assist in flood mapping and management and potentially even accurate flood forecasting. Thanks to their vantage point, satellites provide information on the global occurrence and footprint of floods in near real time. It also helps in understanding the scale and extent of the flood. For example, researchers have used NASA’s TOPEX/Poseidon satellite and ESA’s ENVISAT satellite to calculate the height and extent of floods in different regions.
Satellite imagery is also useful in creating predictive models that could assist in tentative flood forecasting. Here, the satellites use weather models to calculate the approximate amount of rain each area could receive. Spatial soil imaging also allows the water-holding capacity of the land to be calculated.
Also to NASA Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) the satellite provides scientists with an idea of the amount of moisture content in the soil. This is a key factor that helps in assessing the chances of flooding. These important pieces of information cumulatively help with development of flood risk maps. This further helps authorities to predict floods and be better prepared to manage them.
Satellites help monitor 2019 Arkansas River flooding Source: NASA Landsat 8
Droughts
Climate change is increasing droughts frequent and severe. Because the impact is wide-ranging, ranging from affecting water quality, public health, the economy and public infrastructure, among others, drought monitoring and forecasting has become vital to crisis management. Satellites can play an important role in predicting droughts. They do this by radiation measurement, which helps for accurate soil moisture measurement levels.
This provides favorable weather insights. For example, if satellite measurements show that the soil is getting wetter, this could mean that flooding is imminent.
Similarly, if you find that the moisture content of the soil is drying up, this could be an indicator of a potential drought. For example, on Advanced Scatterometer (ASCAT) on board EUMETSAT’s Metop satellites in polar orbit measures soil moisture content, among other things.
Remote monitoring too tracking factors such as weather patterns and wind speed that affect weather conditions such as drought. In addition, satellites also help in assessing the impact of droughts on vegetation. The satellite-based one Fraction of absorbed photosynthetically active radiation (FAPAR) in this regard, it helps in assessing the impact of droughts.
Furthermore, it is essential to continuously monitor various surface water bodies for effective and sustainable water management and drought prevention. For example, declining lake water levels may indicate the first signs of impending droughts.
Also Read: Building a Geospatial Data Refinery for Climate Intelligence
A satellite image captures the shrinking of Lake Mill in Iraq over the past two decades. The red outline shows the lake in 2000 and the blue outline shows the lake in its current state Source: Google Earth Engine
Deforestation
Deforestation is one of the most pressing challenges we face today, as the world’s rainforests were appreciated in 2019 to disappear at the rate of one football field every six seconds. Deforestation and land degradation act as a double-edged sword, as they not only deprive the world of naturally occurring carbon sinks, but also lead to the release of stored carbon back into the atmosphere.
The seriousness of this problem was highlighted in 2021 when scientists alarmingly confirmed for the first time that Amazon rainforest emits more carbon dioxide than it has been able to absorb (nearly 1 billion tons) mainly due to deforestation, fires, degradation, etc. As the crisis worsened, monitoring deforestation became vitally important.
With traditional methods such as forest guards once found to be expensive and time-consuming, satellite data revolutionized deforestation monitoring with high-resolution data.
Satellites in this regard provide images of the earth on a daily basis that help in mapping deforested areas over a period of time and in identifying hotspots.
Actually new study found that satellites help reduce deforestation. Earth-orbiting satellites have proven useful in reducing deforestation by 18% in two years in 22 African countries.
Countries benefited from systems that used up-to-date satellite data to send warnings about declining forest cover in the tropics. Likewise, the Brazilian government created a data collection system called PROCESSwhich uses high-resolution data from the Landsat 5 and 7 satellites to monitor and…
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