How Satellites Help Fight Climate Change

In November 2022, the Environmental Defense Fund launched MethaneSAT — a satellite purpose-built to detect and quantify methane emissions from oil and gas infrastructure worldwide. Within months of reaching orbit, it had identified thousands of previously unknown emission sources, providing data granular enough to trace leaks to individual well pads, compressor stations, and pipelines. It was a vivid demonstration of something climate scientists have known for decades: you cannot manage what you cannot measure, and satellites are the only tools capable of measuring the planet's climate system at global scale.

Why Satellites Are Essential for Climate Science

Climate change is a global phenomenon that requires global observation. Ground-based weather stations, ocean buoys, and air quality monitors provide critical data, but they are unevenly distributed — concentrated in wealthy nations and virtually absent over oceans, deserts, polar regions, and developing countries. Satellites fill these gaps by providing:

• Global coverage: A single polar-orbiting satellite can image every point on Earth every 1-2 days
• Consistency: Satellites apply the same measurement methodology everywhere, eliminating discrepancies between national monitoring standards
• Long-term records: Some satellite climate data records extend back to the 1970s, providing the multi-decade baselines essential for detecting trends
• Access to remote regions: Arctic ice extent, Amazon deforestation, Antarctic ice sheet mass — satellites are often the only practical way to monitor these critical indicators

Greenhouse Gas Monitoring

Tracking greenhouse gas concentrations and emissions from space has advanced dramatically in recent years. Key missions include:

• OCO-2 and OCO-3 (NASA): The Orbiting Carbon Observatory measures atmospheric CO2 concentrations with high precision, enabling scientists to map carbon sources and sinks at regional scales
• TROPOMI (ESA/Copernicus): The Tropospheric Monitoring Instrument aboard Sentinel-5P measures methane, nitrogen dioxide, ozone, and other trace gases at 5.5 km resolution daily
• MethaneSAT (EDF): Designed specifically to quantify methane emissions from the oil and gas sector at facility-level resolution — precise enough for regulatory enforcement
• GHGSat (commercial): A constellation of satellites measuring methane and CO2 emissions from individual industrial facilities, providing data to companies and regulators
• CO2M (ESA/Copernicus): The upcoming Copernicus CO2 Monitoring mission, launching in 2026, will provide the first satellite-based verification of national CO2 emission inventories reported under the Paris Agreement

This shift toward facility-level emissions monitoring from space is a game-changer for climate policy. For the first time, it will be possible to independently verify whether countries and companies are meeting their emission reduction commitments — using satellite data that cannot be falsified or selectively reported.

Ice Sheets and Sea Level Rise

Satellites provide the most comprehensive measurements of polar ice loss and sea level change:

• GRACE-FO (NASA/DLR): The Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment Follow-On measures changes in Earth's gravitational field caused by the redistribution of water mass — primarily ice sheet loss in Greenland and Antarctica. GRACE data shows that Greenland is losing approximately 280 billion tonnes of ice per year.
• ICESat-2 (NASA): A laser altimeter that measures ice sheet elevation changes with centimeter-level precision, tracking how ice sheets are thinning and glaciers are retreating
• Sentinel-3 and Jason-3: Radar altimeters that measure global sea level with millimeter precision. Current data shows sea levels rising at approximately 3.7 mm per year — a rate that is accelerating
• CryoSat-2 (ESA): Specialized radar altimeter for measuring sea ice thickness and ice sheet volume, providing data critical for climate models

Deforestation and Land Use

Forests absorb roughly 30% of human CO2 emissions. Monitoring deforestation from space enables rapid detection and response:

• Landsat (NASA/USGS): The longest-running Earth observation program, providing continuous 30-meter resolution imagery since 1972. Landsat data underpins global deforestation monitoring systems like Global Forest Watch.
• Sentinel-2 (ESA/Copernicus): Provides 10-meter resolution multispectral imagery every 5 days, enabling near-real-time detection of forest clearing
• Planet Labs: A commercial constellation imaging the entire Earth daily at 3-5 meter resolution, used by conservation organizations and governments to detect illegal logging and land conversion

Brazil's DETER system uses satellite imagery to detect deforestation in the Amazon in near-real-time, alerting enforcement agencies within days of clearing activity. Similar systems operate in Indonesia, the Congo Basin, and other tropical forest regions.

Feeding Climate Models

Climate models — the computational systems that project future warming scenarios — depend on satellite data for both calibration and validation. Satellites measure sea surface temperatures, cloud properties, atmospheric moisture profiles, surface albedo, vegetation health, and dozens of other variables that climate models must accurately represent. Without satellite observations, climate models would be far less reliable, and our understanding of future warming scenarios far more uncertain.

The Commercial Sector's Growing Role

While government agencies have traditionally led climate monitoring, commercial satellite companies are increasingly contributing. Companies like GHGSat, Pixxel, and Muon Space are building specialized climate monitoring constellations, often with higher revisit rates and better spatial resolution than government missions. The convergence of commercial capability and climate urgency is creating a new market for climate intelligence as a service.

Track satellite constellations, monitor environmental missions, and follow climate-related space technology with SpaceNexus.

Explore the SpaceNexus Satellite Tracker