Space-Based Observations Reveal Key Climate Changes in 2024
Satellite data continue to play a crucial role in understanding Earth’s changing climate. The annual State of the Climate report, published by the Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society, draws on a combination of space-based measurements, ground stations, ocean buoys, and field observations to provide a comprehensive overview of global climate conditions.
The European Space Agency’s Climate Change Initiative (CCI) has been a key contributor, transforming decades of satellite observations into consistent, long-term datasets. These records cover essential climate variables such as soil moisture, lake surface temperatures, permafrost, and land surface temperatures. By providing accurate and consistent measurements, satellite data enable scientists to track trends, assess risks, and inform international climate assessments and adaptation strategies.
Highlights from the 2024 report, based on satellite observations, include:
• Soil moisture extremes: While regions like the Sahel experienced above-average soil moisture, large parts of the Americas faced severe drought, including record-breaking conditions in the United States. These insights come from the CCI Soil Moisture Project, which uses microwave satellite sensors to monitor water content in soils worldwide—a key factor for agriculture, water resources, and wildfire risk.
• Lake warming: Observations from the CCI Lakes Project revealed that more than half of the monitored lakes globally recorded surface temperature anomalies exceeding +0.5 °C. Monitoring lakes with satellite data provides important information on the effects of climate change on freshwater ecosystems and water resources.
• Permafrost thaw: Data from the CCI Permafrost Project show accelerating movement of rock glaciers in Central Asia, reflecting rising ground temperatures. Such changes highlight the sensitivity of permafrost regions, which store large amounts of carbon that could amplify global warming if released.
• Extreme land temperatures: Using high-resolution data from Copernicus Sentinel-3, several regions experienced land surface temperatures above 60 °C. These measurements are essential in remote areas where weather stations are scarce and provide insights into potential limits of human habitability.
• Ozone recovery: Satellite observations indicate that stratospheric ozone levels in the Northern Hemisphere reached their highest concentrations since monitoring began in 1979, while the Southern Hemisphere is also showing signs of recovery after recent declines due to pollution and wildfire impacts.
These findings underscore the indispensable role of space-based information in monitoring climate change. Long-term satellite datasets not only improve scientific understanding but also support disaster risk reduction, climate adaptation, and early warning systems.
Read the original article here: ESA - ESA data records help underpin climate change report
