How satellites transform our perception of a changing planet

Space · Published 25 October 2026 Swipe more like this →

In short: From tracking individual farm fields to watching glaciers retreat in real-time, satellite imagery has fundamentally changed how we witness Earth. By condensing decades of movement into seconds, these high-resolution observations allow us to see the pulse of our environment and forecast the impacts of a warming climate.

NASA's role in observing Earth began in earnest shortly after the first Earth Day in 1970. A pivotal milestone occurred just two years later with the launch of the first NASA/USGS Landsat satellite. This program has since enabled humanity to answer questions that were previously unaskable, providing a continuous record of our planet's land cover and environmental shifts.

The utility of these satellites is highly practical. For example, the USDA uses Landsat data—which can detect individual farm fields—to map crops across the United States. By combining this with other satellite feeds and ground surveys, officials can tabulate annual acreages, evaluate damage from natural disasters like floods or droughts, and manage resources such as water use and crop rotation.

Beyond agriculture, these tools provide a window into rapid geological change. Glaciologists have used Landsat images to create time-lapse videos of glaciers in Alaska and the Yukon. By painstakingly selecting cloud-free, late-summer images dating back to 1972, researchers can observe how rivers of ice surge or retreat. These visual records are essential for forecasting how glaciers will behave as the climate warms.

The legacy of this work is being cemented into the infrastructure of space exploration. The Sentinel-6A ocean observing satellite was renamed 'Sentinel-6 Michael Freilich' in honor of the former head of NASA’s Earth Science Division. This international collaboration between NASA, ESA, and others ensures that his lifelong dedication to understanding our oceans continues to uncover new knowledge.

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