Researched
Earth observation by satellite
TIROS-1 (1960) sent the first cloud pictures from orbit; Landsat (1972) and later satellites now monitor land, ice, oceans and air continuously.
Open in the interactive tree →Satellite data feed weather models and track sea level, ice sheets, forests, fires and greenhouse gases. Without them neither the extent of the ozone hole nor global warming could be monitored. Radar missions such as NISAR (launched 30 July 2025) map ground motion and ice changes to the centimetre.
Prerequisites
- Weather maps and services1854
- Broadcasting & Television1920TIROS-1 (1960) photographed clouds with TV cameras and radioed the images down
- First satellite (Sputnik)1957
Unlocks
- El Niño-Southern Oscillation1969-1994
- Ozone hole and Montreal Protocol1987
- Satellite Altimetry & Sea Level1992
- GRACE Gravity Satellites2002
- Precision agriculture2020sField-level crop monitoring and variable-rate maps use satellite imagery
- SWOT Wide-Swath Water Survey2022
- Paris 2015, 1.5 °C breached2024
- AI weather models2025
- Coral reef tipping point2025
- Climate sensitivity rangeopen
- Forecasting volcanic eruptionsopen
- Fresh water for everyoneopen
- Halting mass extinctionopen