Why this is important: The coming decades are crucial to determining the pace and severity of climate change, and efforts to apply new technology to reduce emissions to net Negative requires new planetary monitoring capacities.
An ever growing constellation of satellites capable of gazing beneath the earth’s surface, following sea level rise in unprecedented detail and tracking atmospheric pollutants will further climate research over decades to come.
An additional NASA satellite NISAR that will be rolled out in partnership with the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) will be able to measure tiny changes in the planet’s surface, that include ice layer movements, volcanic activities, and earthquakes.
Climate data will herald a whole new era of real-time environmental monitoring and enforcement that may well lead to more teeth than many to new international accords.
Carbon sequestration
Carbon sequestration is the long-term removal, capture, or sequestration of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere to slow or reverse atmospheric CO2 pollution and to mitigate or reverse climate change. (wikipedia)
Oceanic carbon cycle
The oceanic carbon cycle is composed of processes that exchange carbon between various pools within the ocean as well as between the atmosphere, Earth interior, and the seafloor. (wikipedia)
Earth
Earth is the third planet from the Sun and the only astronomical object known to harbor and support life. About 29.2% of Earth’s surface is land consisting of continents and islands. The remaining 70. (wikipedia)
Gavin Schmidt
Gavin A. Schmidt is a climatologist, climate modeler and Director of the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies in New York, and co-founder of the award-winning climate science blog RealClimate. (wikipedia)
NASA
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration is an independent agency of the U.S. federal government responsible for the civilian space program, as well as aeronautics and space research. (wikipedia)
Deep Space Climate Observatory
Deep Space Climate Observatory is a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration space weather, space climate, and Earth observation satellite. It was launched by SpaceX on a Falcon 9 v1. (wikipedia)
Goddard Space Flight Center
The Goddard Space Flight Center is a major NASA space research laboratory located approximately 6.5 miles northeast of Washington, D.C. in Greenbelt, Maryland, United States. Established on May 1, (wikipedia)
