Climate Action
Are You Looking Up?
September 30, 2025
Space is the final frontier. If you’ve ever gone stargazing, you’ve likely noticed flickering spots that look like stars but move rhythmically across the night sky. What are they? They aren’t stars—they are satellites.
Satellites can be natural celestial bodies or man-made machines orbiting Earth. Natural satellites include moons and other naturally formed bodies that orbit larger celestial objects, such as planets orbiting stars. Artificial satellites, like NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope and the International Space Station, are equipped with instruments to observe, measure, and collect data for various missions.
Have you ever checked the weather, watched live television, made a phone call, listened to the radio, or used GPS navigation? If yes, you’ve interacted with satellites more than you might realize.
“Hey Siri, where am I?”
If you’ve used a smartphone or driven a car in the 21st century, you likely rely on GPS—the Global Positioning System. GPS is a satellite navigation system owned by the U.S. government, originally managed by the Air Force and now overseen by the U.S. Space Force. It consists of a constellation of satellites, historically called Navstar GPS, broadcasting signals to accurately determine locations.
Other countries operate their own Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS). Alongside the U.S. Navstar GPS, the European Union operates Galileo, Russia manages GLONASS, and China uses Beidou.
What’s Going on Down There?
Satellites do far more than assist with navigation. They are key to remote sensing, a field where specialized satellites measure Earth’s features from space. These satellites observe light reflection, temperatures, topography, and vegetation health.
This “spatial data” is invaluable across navigation, weather forecasting, transit planning, mapping, environmental monitoring, and climate research. Remote sensing satellites operate across visible light, infrared, microwave, and other wavelengths to gather a comprehensive view of Earth’s surface and atmosphere. For example, satellites measure surface reflectance—the sunlight reflected from Earth’s surface—to track climate change, natural disasters, and urban development.
One critically important example is the Global WaterPack dataset, which assesses the presence and variation of surface water worldwide over time and space to monitor threats like erosion, sea level rise, and coastal habitat changes.
NASA’s Aqua and Terra missions, using MODIS sensors, have been providing land and water surface data for over two decades. Alongside NASA, the European Space Agency’s Sentinel-2 & 3 and the USGS Landsat series also play pivotal roles in Earth observation.
Drawing Lines = Solving Problems
Scientists and analysts interpret spatial data using Geographic Information Systems (GIS), enabling them to create models and maps that reveal patterns they might not otherwise see to inform their decisions. The roots of this data led mapping approach date back to the 1854 London cholera outbreak when John Snow mapped cases and linked them to contaminated wells, pioneering epidemiology.
Today, spatial data supports modern challenges like urban planning, public transport, and sustainable housing. For example Vienna’s Aspern Seestadt, built on a former airfield in Vienna’s 22nd district, is one of Europe’s largest urban development projects. A living laboratory for sustainable urban living that improved the quality of life of the people who moved there.
Satellites provided high-resolution satellite imagery and spatial data to create detailed, dynamic maps that tracked construction progress, land use, and infrastructure development. The project integrates intelligent power grids, energy-efficient buildings, and innovative mobility solutions such as autonomous electric buses and multimodal transit stations. Initiatives like WienMobil, which combines bike-sharing, e-car sharing, and electric scooters with public transport, make mobility both sustainable and convenient.
Aspern Seestadt combined residential living, business, and communal spaces to foster real community and serves as a blueprint for Vienna’s broader “smart city” goals, aiming to improve efficiency, inclusivity, and environmental resilience across the city. Thanks to satellites!
Budget Cuts Bode Badly
Recently, NASA announced plans to decommission critical satellites following federal budget cuts under President Trump’s administration. Among affected systems is NASA’s Orbiting Carbon Observatory (OCO-1 & 2), with Aqua and Terra missions also at risk. These satellites supply essential data for climate science, renewable energy deployment, and atmospheric monitoring. What is more, the American tax payer, paid for them not the government and there is no justifiable reason for destroying them.
Your support matters. Advocate locally for policies protecting scientific tools and evidence-based decision-making. Change begins in communities and fuels a sustainable future for all.
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