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Satellites Can Help Us Fight Climate Change

At the beginning of 2021, President Joe Biden exclaimed that “science is back” as we continued our efforts to 1． the COVID emergency. That phrase continues to ring true across the federal government. Science and its applications are being used at every agency to deal with public health 2．, build new transportation infrastructure, inform policy decisions and tackle the climate crisis.

Recently the Interior Department’s U.S. Geological Survey assumed 3． of Landsat 9 from NASA, which built and launched it in 2021.This satellite is designed to 4． Earth’s land, water and other natural resources. Landsat missions support environmental sustainability and climate resilience. The Landsat program, which launched in July 1972, has helped us understand our planet and the changes that are occurring on it. That partnership has propelled research and observation forward through the launch of 5． Landsat satellites, each replacing its predecessors and working in tandem with new capabilities and strengths.

I attended the historic launch of Landsat 9 in California. It was nothing 6． of amazing. I toured the mission control center and met a young scientist from the Navajo Nation living far away from home. She uses Landsat 7． to see her home from many miles away, and with such data, she enables her community to manage water resources in the face of a changing climate. This is the power and beauty of science at work.

All around the globe, scientists are using Landsat and other imagery to interpret what is happening on Earth today and to compare it with the 50 years’ 8． of data the Landsat program has collected.

This science-based program and those like it across federal agencies are powerful tools in our efforts to responsibly manage our resources. Their prioritization helps to demonstrate the Biden-Harris administration’s commitment to lead with science. So, too, the resources provided through the president’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and Inflation Reduction Act will be key to the development of longer-term sustainability measures as we 9． to climate change, including building more resilient communities and protecting our natural environment.

Landsat NEXT is the upcoming mission we will develop with NASA to power better science and decision-making for the next 50 years. Science is indeed 10． us on a path to a brighter future.