On Wednesday and Thursday, Toulouse is hosting, on the sidelines of an informal meeting of European space ministers, a high-level symposium to determine the future of Copernicus, the European program for monitoring the Earth from space.
Since 2014, eight satellites have been orbited around the Earth by the European Union (EU) to observe it and monitor its health.
From the detection of methane leaks to the color of the oceans, through the monitoring of sea ice.
Six other satellites will follow by 2029, including one specialized in monitoring CO2 emissions.
The symposium will aim to reflect on the needs for 2035 and to imagine new services.
Including that of future policeman of the Paris Climate Agreement?
One thousand eight hundred plumes of methane, a powerful greenhouse gas, including 1,200 observed above oil and gas extraction sites.
This is what an international team of researchers across the globe, led by the French Laboratory for Climate and Environmental Sciences (LSCE) and associated with the company Kayrros, has managed to identify.
"These may be accidental discharges or related to maintenance operations", specify the scientists.
And yet, these 1,800 methane leaks have an impact comparable to that of the circulation of 20 million vehicles for a year”, they calculate.
This work was published in the scientific journal
Science
on February 4.
To achieve this mapping, the researchers systematically analyzed thousands of images produced daily for two years by the Sentinel-5 SP satellite of the European Space Agency (ESA).
Valuable support for the ecological transition?
This is a practical application of Copernicus, the European Union's Earth monitoring programme.
Since 2014, eight satellites have been put into orbit around the Earth to observe it from every angle.
This is phase “one” of the program which was completed last year.
The second has already been approved by the EU and provides for the launch of six new Sentinels between 2025 and 2029. And on Wednesday and Thursday, in Toulouse, during a high-level symposium on the sidelines of the informal meeting of European ministers responsible for space, it is the future of Copernicus by 2035 that will be discussed.
Proof therefore that the European Union does not plan to stop Copernicus anytime soon.
Quite the contrary.
“We are entering a critical period in which we will have to drastically reduce our greenhouse gas emissions and to achieve this, we will have to be accompanied, recalls climatologist Robert Vautard, director of research at the Pierre-Simon Institute. Laplace (LPSL).
However, "the majority of climate change indicators can only be followed correctly from space", continues Olivier Sanguy, editor-in-chief at the Cité de l'Espace.
Air quality, sea level rise, ground temperature
In addition to locating methane leaks, the "Sentinel-5SP" with its spectrometer*, "can analyze air quality, by measuring components such as nitrogen dioxide (NO2) [an indicator of automobile pollution ], ozone, sulfur dioxide, aerosols,” reports Henri Laur, head of Earth observation missions at the European Space Agency (ESA).
Henri Laur also quotes “Sentinel-2”, “probably the best known and which gives images of the entire surface of the Earth every five days and in high resolution (with an accuracy of ten meters)”.
A valuable instrument for monitoring the state of vegetation – forests in particular – and soil artificialisation.
Other Copernicus satellites, through the various instruments they carry, will measure sea level rise, ground temperatures on the surface of the oceans, monitor sea ice, identify local pollution such as slicks of hydrocarbons… Sentinel 3 even has a water color sensor on board that can monitor the levels of micro-algae in our waters, which are both carbon sinks and at the base of the marine food chain.
Concrete applications, from agriculture to urban planning
The new generation of satellites expected from 2025 should improve the observation of the parameters already monitored by Copernicus and add new ones.
“We are developing CO2M [Copernicus Carbon Dioxide Monitoring Mission], a satellite which will be specialized in measuring the quantities of CO2 (main greenhouse gas) released into the atmosphere and which should be launched around 2026”, mentions in particular Henri Laur.
But the challenge of Copernicus is not only to follow the state of health of the Earth.
“It is also to find concrete applications for these satellite data, adds Robert Vautard, who is working precisely on this downstream part of the Copernicus program.
“By combining them with forecasting models, we make climate projections over very short and much longer periods of time,” explains the climatologist.
Agriculture is probably the market that should benefit the most from the effects of Copernicus, by allowing projections on agricultural yields, the risks of drought, and above all by allowing better management of water and periods for planting seedlings.
"But we have also recently worked with the city of Paris and the Ile-de-France region on urban development scenarios to adapt to climate change and the expected heat waves", continues Robert Vautard.
And on its website, Copernicus lists, on 26 pages, concrete applications or application projects based on its satellite data.
From the “blue economy” to health, through forest management, optimization of renewable energy production… This everywhere in the world.
Copernicus, future policeman of the Paris agreements?
This is one of the strengths of Copernicus, for Olivier Sanguy.
“The EU does not charge for the data of the program, he specifies.
Everyone, including private actors, can use them to imagine climate services and generate economic activity.
These two days of colloquium in Toulouse should make it possible to project even further by setting priorities for the third generation of Copernicus satellites – the one which should be put into orbit by 2035 therefore.
The challenge is both to improve the accuracy of the indicators already monitored by Copernicus and to determine new ones to observe and to imagine future applications behind them.
Among these, that of making Copernicus the future policeman of the Paris Agreement on the climate?
“It would not be the first time that we would monitor from space the proper respect of international treaties, recalls Oliver Sanguy.
This is already the case, for example on the non-proliferation of nuclear weapons.
” The stakes are just as high on climate change.
“We must now ensure that the countries fulfill their part of the contract and drastically reduce their greenhouse gas emissions, points out Robert Vautard.
Relying solely on their statements will not suffice.
This is indeed one of the aims of the CO2M satellite, which will measure the quantities of CO2 produced by human activity.
In the same way, one could very well imagine that this mapping of the 1,800 plumes of methane,
Planet
2021 is among the seven hottest years on record, according to Copernicus
Planet
Science: New generation Argo floats ready to probe the depths of the ocean
*A measuring device that breaks down an observed quantity - here the Earth's atmosphere - into its simple elements that constitute its spectrum
Toulouse
Space
Satellite
Science
Global warming
Planet
Weather
0 comment
0 share
Share on Messenger
Share on Facebook
Share on Twitter
Share on Flipboard
Share on Pinterest
Share on Linkedin
Send by Mail
To safeguard
A fault ?
To print