Arctic sea ice extent during the summer months has declined considerably over the satellite record. Surface melt ponds, which form on sea ice during the spring, play an important role in the decay of sea ice and seasonal reduction in ice extent because they influence how much solar radiation is absorbed into the sea ice-ocean …
Four out of the best weekly contributions to the Custom Script Contest – focused on the support of space assets during the COVID-19 crisis – were invited to upscale their ideas to the European level. Two of them have now been selected for integration into the RACE (Rapid Action Coronavirus Earth observation) dashboard. The winning …
High-resolution images collected over a mixed forest ecosystem with the HyPlant sensor, deployed as an airborne demonstrator of the forthcoming ESA-FLEX satellite have been exploited in this study to explore the potential of a novel metric based on far-red sun-induced chlorophyll fluorescence (F760) to map the functional diversity of terrestrial ecosystems. Plant functional diversity, defined …
TIGER was launched by ESA in 2002 as a direct response to a call for action in Africa stressed by the Johannesburg World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD). The objective of the initiative was to assist African countries to overcome problems faced in the collection, analysis and use of water related geo-information by exploiting the …
Earth’s oceans help to slow global warming by absorbing carbon from our atmosphere – but fully observing this crucial process in the upper ocean and lower atmosphere is difficult, as measurements are taken not where it occurs, the sea surface, but several metres below. New research uses data from ESA, NASA and NOAA satellites to …
Registration is open as from today for the Horizon 2020 European Green Deal Call, a €1 billion call for research and innovation projects that respond to the climate crisis and help protect Europe’s unique ecosystems and biodiversity. Ten areas will be covered. Eight thematic areas reflecting the key work streams of the European Green Deal: Increasing …
On 19 August 2020, the world’s largest and longest polar research expedition – known as MOSAiC – reached the North Pole after making an unplanned detour owing to lighter-than-usual sea ice conditions. The expedition is now entering its final stage, during which researchers will study the last piece of the Arctic puzzle: the growth of …
A recent report confirms that ice sheets in Greenland and Antarctica, whose mass-loss rates have been rapidly increasing, are matching the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s worst-case sea-level rise scenarios. Read the full story.
The IPCC Special Report on the Ocean and Cryosphere in Changing Climate (2019) includes “permafrost carbon and greenhouse gas emissions” as one of the cases characterised by deep uncertainty. The report states that even if there is a very high confidence that “permafrost temperatures have increased to record high levels including the recent increase by …
It is no news that the use of social media by the science community has grown over the recent years. Platforms like Twitter offer a quick and efficient tool to engage/enlarge audiences across the globe to showcase research and findings, but not only… @EO_OPEN_SCIENCE (ESA Twitter account dedicated to Open Science and EO users) reaching …
