STS: Climate Change and Science

Climate change

is emerging as one of the greatest longterm challenges facing society. Its impacts have already been felt worldwide, and much worse is looming

Snow Cover Is Decreasing

Satellite observations reveal that the amount of spring snow cover in the Northern Hemisphere has decreased over the past five decades and the snow is melting earlier.

The Ice Sheets Are Shrinking

The Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets have decreased in mass. Data from NASA's Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment show Greenland lost an average of 279 billion tons of ice per year between 1993 and 2019, while Antarctica lost about 148 billion tons of ice per year.

The Ocean Is Getting Warmer

The ocean has absorbed much of this increased heat, with the top 100 meters (about 328 feet) of ocean showing warming of 0.67 degrees Fahrenheit (0.33 degrees Celsius) since 1969.

Sea Level Is Rising

Global sea level rose about 8 inches (20 centimeters) in the last century. The rate in the last two decades, however, is nearly double that of the last century and accelerating slightly every year.

Satellites

provide early warnings of change, improve climate predictions and deliver the hard facts needed for effective international climate action.

LANDSAT

have the optimal ground resolution and spectral bands to efficiently track land use and to document land change due to climate change, urbanization, drought, wildfire, biomass changes (carbon assessments), and a host of other natural and human-caused changes

JASON

operates in low Earth orbit at 1336km altitude. Its main instrument is a radar altimeter that provides measurements of sea surface height, wind speed at the ocean surface and significant wave height.

METEOSAT

are in geostationary orbit, so they orbit the Earth at the same rate that the Earth rotates about its axis. This enables continuous observations of around one-third of the Earth’s surface from their orbit 36,000km above the equator.

Copernicus Sentinel-1

is designed as a two-satellite constellation. Each satellite carries an advanced radar instrument to provide an all-weather, dayand-night supply of imagery of Earth's surface. The mission ended for Sentinel1B in 2022.