Here's how the world monitors natural disasters and environmental changes

The document explains the transition of satellite data from a professional-only resource to an open-access tool for the general public. It details specific satellite missions—Landsat, Sentinel, and GOES—and their respective capabilities in spatial and temporal resolution. The author highlights how these resources, combined with cloud-computing platforms and user-friendly web apps, allow users to track deforestation, coastline erosion, and disaster impacts, such as the 2022 Pakistan floods.

• The availability of open-access data from government satellites and free cloud-computing resources like Amazon Web Services, Google Earth Engine, and Microsoft Planetary Computer has democratized the ability to track environmental changes.
• The Landsat mission, operating since 1972, provides global coverage every eight days with Landsat 8 and 9 in orbit, featuring a spatial resolution of approximately 100 feet (30 meters). This data was used by scientists to estimate the total flooded area during the 2022 Pakistan flood.
• The European Space Agency's Sentinel-2 satellites, part of the Copernicus program, have provided optical imagery since 2015 with a 10-meter spatial resolution and a 10-day temporal resolution.
• NOAA's Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellites (GOES) provide continuous monitoring of the atmosphere and surface, with a temporal resolution of five to 10 minutes and a spatial resolution of about 1.2 miles (2 kilometers).
• Modern user-friendly tools and web apps, such as Snazzy-EE-TS-GIF and Planetary Computer Explorer, allow non-experts to create time-lapse animations of satellite imagery without extensive data processing skills.

APA

Wu, Q. (2023). Here's how the world monitors natural disasters and environmental changes. World Economic Forum. https://www.weforum.org/stories/nature-and-biodiversity/heres-how-the-world-monitors-natural-disasters-and-environmental-changes/

Chicago

Wu, Qiusheng. Here's how the world monitors natural disasters and environmental changes. World Economic Forum, 2023. https://www.weforum.org/stories/nature-and-biodiversity/heres-how-the-world-monitors-natural-disasters-and-environmental-changes/.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Wu |first1=Qiusheng |title=Here's how the world monitors natural disasters and environmental changes |publisher=World Economic Forum |date=16 March 2023 |url=https://www.weforum.org/stories/nature-and-biodiversity/heres-how-the-world-monitors-natural-disasters-and-environmental-changes/ |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{wu2023heres, author = {Wu, Qiusheng}, title = {{Here's how the world monitors natural disasters and environmental changes}}, institution = {World Economic Forum}, year = {2023}, month = mar, url = {https://www.weforum.org/stories/nature-and-biodiversity/heres-how-the-world-monitors-natural-disasters-and-environmental-changes/}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }