![]() ![]() These were fitted on board the European Space Agency’s satellites:Īfter the Envisat satellite retired in 2012, RAL Space developed the Sea and Land Surface Temperature Radiometer (SLSTR) (STFC) for the sentinel satellites. This began with the Along-Track Scanning Radiometer (ATSR) series. Since the 1980s, scientists at RAL Space have helped develop and calibrate a series of instruments that can measure sea and land surface temperatures to unprecedented accuracy. Measuring sea and land surface temperatures RAL Space is based at the Science and Technology Facilities Council’s (STFC) Rutherford Appleton Laboratory near Didcot in Oxfordshire. In Britain, huge advances in measuring global surface temperatures have been made by scientists at RAL Space. Today’s satellites are capable of much more sophisticated measurements. The first satellite to provide an accurate measurement of Earth’s atmospheric temperatures was NASA’s Nimbus III, which was launched in 1969. It wasn’t until the advent of satellites that Callendar’s measurements could be confirmed, and the world started to take notice. ![]() However, at the time his findings were largely ignored by: He discovered that global temperatures had risen 0.3☌ over the previous 50 years. In 1938, Callendar painstakingly collected records from 147 weather stations across the world. The first person to provide proof that the planet was heating up was actually a little-known amateur scientist called Guy Callendar. ![]() These satellites provide accurate measurements of the temperature of our oceans, land and atmosphere. Today, hundreds of miles above the Earth’s surface, a vast network of satellites is collecting data on our planet’s climate system. This event was only possible because scientists had unequivocal proof that global temperatures have risen at unprecedented rates over the last century.īut how do scientists know that the Earth is warming? Satellites collecting data This ground-breaking legislation legally forces governments to curb their carbon emissions to limit global warming to less than 2☌. In 2015, 196 countries around the world signed up to the Paris Agreement (United Nations Climate Change). How do we know that the Earth is warming? On World Space Week, we focus on what space science is doing to help us mitigate against climate change. They are watching the oceans, land, ice, atmosphere and biosphere. Together organisations like NASA and the European Space Agency have over 150 satellites in orbit around the planet. However, Earth is a planet too, and we can learn a great deal about our climate from the vantage point of space. You’re more likely to picture astronauts floating around the International Space Station, or engineers designing rovers that can traverse volcanoes on Mars. When you think of space research, climate change probably isn’t the first thing that pops into your head. To celebrate World Space Week, we take a look at how space science is helping us understand, and take action against, climate change. ![]()
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