20/12/2023
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This 12 months has been a whirlwind of charming Earth comment tales and knowledge, spanning from dramatic volcanic eruptions to extremely efficient earthquakes to witnessing icebergs on the run. Be a part of us as we revisit a variety of probably the most memorable tales from 2023.
10) We celebrated 25 years of Copernicus
‘Europe’s eyes on Earth’ started in 1998 as an idea for an operational environmental monitoring programme. Twenty-five years later, Copernicus is in full swing. With seven Copernicus Sentinel satellites in orbit, along with the contributing missions, terabytes of free and open data and data corporations are supplied day by day to a number of of a whole lot of shoppers.
The data help cope with just a few of proper this second’s key challenges similar to diminishing polar ice, meals security, rising sea ranges, pure disasters and, in any case, native climate change.
To have a very good time the anniversary, flick via a variety of the highlights dropped at you by Copernicus.
9) We observed smelly seaweed from home
Sargassum is a giant brown seaweed that floats in heaps alongside the ocean flooring. It’s a important habitat for marine species providing meals refuge and breeding grounds. It moreover absorbs atmospheric carbon dioxide by way of photosynthesis and converts it into pure carbon. Nonetheless, when tonnes of it collects alongside coastlines, it rots – emitting toxins like hydrogen sulphide which produces a pungent scent.
This 12 months’s bloom spanned larger than 8800 km from the shores of Africa to the Gulf of Mexico and weighed spherical 10 million tonnes – so large that it was seen from home. Footage from Copernicus Sentinel-2 confirmed the Sargassum spherical 45 km off the west coast of Guadeloupe.
It was predicted to be an important ever recorded, nevertheless then unexpectedly shrunk.
Be taught the entire story: Smelly seaweed bloom heads to Florida
8) We counted wildfires all through the globe
This summer time season, devastating wildfires unfold all through Greece, Italy, Spain, Portugal, Algeria and Canada – inflicting giant environmental and monetary hurt, along with human casualties.
In delicate of the fires, ESA reopened its World Fire Atlas which affords insights into the distributions of specific individual fires happening at every a nationwide and worldwide scale.
The dashboard makes use of night-time data from the Sea and Land Flooring Temperature Radiometer (SLSTR) on board the Copernicus Sentinel-3A satellite tv for pc television for computer. Working like a thermometer inside the sky, the sensor measures thermal infrared radiation to take the temperature of Earth’s land surfaces which is used to detect the fires.
In a number of of these outbreaks, the Copernicus Emergency Mapping Service was activated. The service makes use of satellite tv for pc television for computer observations to help civil security authorities and, in circumstances of disaster, the worldwide humanitarian group, reply to emergencies.
Be taught full story: Counting wildfires all through the globe
7) Ice loss from Antarctica and Greenland hit a doc low
A report from the Ice Sheet Mass Stability Intercomparison Prepare stated that between 1992 and 2020, the polar ice sheets misplaced 7560 billion tonnes of ice – equal to an ice cube measuring 20 km all sides.
The polar ice sheets have collectively misplaced ice in yearly of the satellite tv for pc television for computer doc, and the seven highest melting years have occurred inside the last decade. Melting peaked in 2019, when the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets misplaced a staggering 612 billion tonnes of ice.
Scientists use data from satellites similar to ESA’s CryoSat and the Copernicus Sentinel-1 to measure changes in ice amount and transfer, along with satellites that current data on gravity, to work out how rather a lot ice is being misplaced.
Be taught full story: Ice loss from Greenland and Antarctica hits new doc
6) We watched an iceberg larger than London break free
Glaciologists have monitored the quite a few cracks and chasms which have customary inside the thick Brunt Ice Shelf, which borders the Coats Land coast inside the Weddell Sea sector of Antarctica, for years. It was solely a matter of time that the A-81 iceberg would break free.
After a variety of years of desperately clinging on, satellite tv for pc television for computer imagery confirmed the massive iceberg lastly calved on 22 January from Antarctica’s Brunt Ice Shelf. The iceberg, which is spherical 1550 sq km – throughout the measurement of Bigger London or 5 events the dimensions of Malta – is in the mean time floating near the ice fringe of the Ronne Ice Shelf, about 600 km from the place it calved.
Routine monitoring from satellites affords unparalleled views of events occurring in distant areas. The Copernicus Sentinel-1 mission carries radar, which could return footage irrespective of day or night and this allows us year-round viewing.
Be taught the entire story: Giant iceberg breaks away from Antarctic ice shelf
5) 2023 set to be hottest 12 months on doc
The WMO provisional State of the World Native climate report confirms that 2023 is able to be the warmest 12 months on doc. Data until the tip of October reveals that the 12 months was about 1.40°C above the pre-industrial 1850—1900 baseline.
The warming El Niño event, which emerged all through the Northern Hemisphere spring of 2023 and developed rapidly all through summer time season, is extra prone to further gasoline the heat in 2024 on account of El Niño often has the most effective have an effect on on worldwide temperatures after it peaks.
Data from the Copernicus Sentinel-3 mission’s radiometer instrument current the land flooring temperature on in July 2023. Land flooring temperature is how scorching the ‘flooring’ of Earth feels to the contact. Air temperature, given in our day by day local weather forecasts, is a measure of how scorching the air is above the underside.
Hyperlink to full story: Europe braces for sweltering July
4) Three Sentinel satellites mapped methane super-emitters
Methane is the second most important greenhouse gasoline contributor to native climate change after carbon dioxide. Generally, methane emissions are monitored by the Copernicus Sentinel-5P satellite tv for pc television for computer. Nonetheless this 12 months, scientists combined data from a variety of satellites to watch methane from home for the very first time.
Researchers from the SRON Netherlands Institute for Space Evaluation observed a gentle methane emission from a leaking facility using data from the Tropomi instrument on Sentinel-5P. They then used a Sentinel-2 image to zoom in on the plumes’ origins and pinpointed the exact location of the leak, whereas Sentinel-3 confirmed the leak continued for six days.
Combining the information from these satellites permits researchers to zoom in with precision, determining, quantifying and monitoring methane sources equal to plumes observed in Sentinel-5P’s worldwide scans.
Be taught the entire story: Trio of Sentinel satellites map methane super-emitters
3) Ozone hole in 2023 was one in every of many best on doc
Very just like the ocean ice spherical Antarctica which grows and retreats yearly, the ozone hole fluctuates often.
Observations from the Copernicus Sentinel-5P satellite tv for pc television for computer level out that the ozone hole or ‘ozone depleting area’ reached a measurement of spherical 26 million sq km on 16 September 2023 – making it one in every of many largest seasonal holes ever observed. That’s roughly thrice the dimensions of Brazil.
One attainable trigger for this 12 months’s unusual ozone patterns may be associated to the eruption of the Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha’apai in January 2022, which injected giant parts of water vapour into the stratosphere. Whatever the large seasonal improvement this 12 months, the ozone hole stays to be reducing in measurement complete. Scientists in the mean time predict that the worldwide ozone layer will attain its common state as soon as extra by spherical 2050.
Be taught the entire story: Ozone hole goes large as soon as extra
2) We talked about goodbye to a historic mission – Aeolus
This 12 months we talked about goodbye to the Aeolus wind mission – thought of one in every of ESA’s most worthwhile Earth comment missions. As an Earth Explorer, the satellite tv for pc television for computer was designed as a evaluation mission and to show new home experience.
Surpassing scientific expectations and exceeding its deliberate life in orbit, the Aeolus wind mission reentered Earth’s ambiance on 28 July at spherical 21:00 CEST above Antarctica. This was the first-of-its-kind assisted reentry and set a model new regular for the safe reentry of satellites and home particles mitigation.
Be taught the entire story: Aeolus: a historic end to a trailblazing mission
1) We entered a model new interval of satellite tv for pc television for computer meteorology
The Meteosat Third Expertise Imager not solely delivered its first view of Earth this 12 months, however moreover supplied us with placing animations of lightning – confirming its performance of revolutionising the detection and prediction of maximum storms.
The Meteosat Third Expertise Imager-1 is the first of six satellites that sort the entire MTG system. When completely operational, the system will current vital data for short-term and early detection of potential extreme local weather events over the following 20 years.
Its first image of Earth revealed a stage of ingredient about local weather over Europe and Africa not beforehand attainable from 36 000 km away. Just a few months later, the satellite tv for pc television for computer’s Lightning Imager was switched on. The Lightning Imager is the first-ever satellite tv for pc television for computer instrument in a position to repeatedly detecting lightning all through Europe and Africa and its capabilities promise to revolutionise the detection and prediction of maximum storms.
Be taught the entire tales: New local weather satellite tv for pc television for computer reveals spectacular footage of Earth and European satellite tv for pc television for computer strikes lightning
