Global warming and remote sensing

ferdi — Mon, 12 Mar 2007 14:40:04 +0000

Many scientists and policy makers agree global warming is the biggest problem facing the planet today. A better understanding of global-warming phenomena requires sophisticated models of the Earth System including the atmosphere, ocean, biosphere and cryosphere.
Satellite data show that the world seems to be growing warmer. Satellites help us to learn more about global climate change and to predict what will happen in the future. The ability of satellites to deliver global data on the Earth System makes them particularly useful to study climate change and to validate and assess the quality of climate models. ESA’s Envisat, the world’s largest environmental satellite, affords this to scientists by providing continuity of data initiated in the early 1990s with previous ESA satellites ERS-1, ESA’s first observation satellite launched in 1991, and ERS-2.
A space-borne instrument known as a radar altimeter offers valuable information on the state of the ocean by providing measurements of the height of the ocean surface. Has been also successful in measuring large-scale homogenous ice surfaces of Greenland and Antarctica and providing initial global monitoring results for sea ice thickness.
Other instruments on Envisat produce daily global maps of greenhouse gases such as methane (a gas commonly used in cookers and heating systems). Others show changes in temperature, snow, ice, lakes and forest cover.
Scientists have confirmed that climate warming is changing how much water remains locked in the Antarctic and Greenland ice sheets, according to an article published in the Journal of Glaciology.

via ESA

Globalwarming Awareness2007, remote sensing