Global Climate News

The United Kingdom has concluded its 2025 chairship of CEOS, led by the UK Space Agency, culminating in an international Plenary in Bath and handing the chair to an Australian consortium (CSIRO, Geoscience Australia, Bureau of Meteorology). - **Main announcement/action:** The UK Space Agency chaired CEOS in 2025 under the theme **'Unlocking EO for Society'**, advanced national priorities including **methane monitoring**, **youth engagement**, and **public sector innovation**, and hosted an international Plenary in Bath. Key concrete actions include partnering with **JAXA** and **CGMS** to strengthen CEOS contributions to the **UNFCCC Global Stocktake**, delivering targeted training for inventory compilers to improve satellite-derived climate data usability, and launching a global initiative (jointly led by **NPL** and **JPL**) with **UNEP IMEO** to standardise **facility-scale methane quantification** using satellite data in support of the UK Government’s **Methane Action Plan**. - **Background and additional details:** CEOS comprises **more than 60 space agencies and international organisations**; the UK hosted a **Youth Summit on 4th November** where students presented EO research posters to delegates; a dedicated workshop at the **2025 SIT Technical Workshop** focused on bridging EO data to public sector applications (urban planning to disaster response). The CEOS chairship now passes to an Australian consortium (CSIRO, Geoscience Australia, Bureau of Meteorology), and CEOS continues technical work across areas such as **virtual constellations, calibrations, tiger teams, and study groups**.

The author Guillermo A. Chinni (Facultad de Ingeniería, Universidad del Salvador) announces that the study identifies a bimodal, season-dependent modulation of ENSO (1999–2024) driven by net downward shortwave solar radiation, detected using a permutation-based SARIMAX framework. - **Main announcement:** The study finds a **Short Cycle (March–May)** radiative forcing with estimated coefficient **0.0014 (standard p = 0.104)** and a **Long Cycle (June–February)** forcing with estimated coefficient **–0.0009 (standard p = 0.130)**; however, **permutation tests (N = 1,000)** produce **P < 0.001** for both cycles, indicating the segmented RAD signals are statistically significant and systematically influence the Oceanic Niño Index (ONI) in opposite directions (β1 > 0, β2 < 0). The model used is **SARIMAX(1,1,2)(2,1,0,12)** selected by AIC and applied to ONI monthly data from **March 1999 – December 2024**. - **Data, methods and diagnostics:** Key datasets include **MERRA-2 net downward shortwave radiation** (via NASA GES DISC/Giovanni), **ONI from NOAA CPC**, and **astronomical ephemerides from IMCCE** and **GISS**; diagnostic tests report **Ljung–Box Q p = 0.96**, **Jarque–Bera p = 0.21**, and **homoskedasticity H = 1.03, p = 0.89**. The manuscript is a **non-peer-reviewed preprint on EarthArXiv**, declares **no external funding** and provides the author's contact email.

Mukesh Gupta (EOXplore Scientific; formerly Arctus Inc.) has authored a review summarizing emerging remote sensing (RS) tools and multi-sensor integration methods for comprehensive cryosphere assessment. - **Scope & key technologies:** This review synthesizes RS methods including **radar interferometry (InSAR/SAR), laser altimetry (ICESat-2), radar altimetry (CryoSat-2), gravimetry (GRACE/GRACE-FO), passive microwave (AMSR2/SSMIS/SMOS), optical imagery (Landsat, Sentinel-2), hyperspectral (PRISMA, EnMAP), and LiDAR**, and highlights **AI/ML-based data fusion**; cites quantitative findings such as **Antarctic ice loss ≈150 billion tons/year (CryoSat-2/IMBIE)** and **Arctic September sea ice decline ~13.1% per decade**. It notes mission specifics: **ICESat-2 launched 2018**, **CryoSat-2 operational since 2010**, and **NISAR 6-day revisit, dual L- and S-band capability**. - **Background & methodological details:** The paper documents multi-mission integration outcomes (e.g., **uncertainty reductions ~30%** from combined datasets), validation efforts (Operation IceBridge 2009–2019, MOSAiC 2019–2020, SnowEx, PROMICE, CALM), advances in **SWE, thickness, velocity, and melt detection**, and states **no specific funding** and **no conflicts of interest** declared.

Peshkom v Istoriyu published a new 80-page popular science book by Pyotr Voltsit titled "The Sun: From Myths to Modern Science" (Moscow, 2025), reviewed on Biomolecula.ru on 25 October 2025. - **Main announcement/action:** The review by Anna Gobova summarizes and praises Voltsit's book, highlighting its structure across four chapters — **"From Myth to Knowledge"**, **"Physics of the Sun"**, **"The Sun and Earth"**, and **"The Sun and Us"** — and noting the book's **80 pages**, accessible style, practical experiments for readers, and target audience of **schoolchildren and their parents**. The review date is **25 October 2025**. - **Background and details:** The reviewer gives top scores (**Quality and reliability: 10/10, Readability: 10/10, Originality: 10/10**), notes coverage of **solar physics, stellar evolution, types of radiation, links between solar activity and climate, food-chain energy transfer, and solar energy**, mentions a minor factual error (misattributing the novel *The Hyperboloid of Engineer Garin* to A. Belyaev instead of A. N. Tolstoy) and a small number of typos, and points out one debatable claim about **microwaves** being described as unambiguously dangerous.

Carbon Mapper Coalition launched the Tanager-1 methane- and CO2-sensing satellite, deployed on SpaceX's Falcon 9 Transporter-11 on August 16, to scale public observations of methane and CO2 super-emitters. - **Launch and deployment details:** Tanager-1 was launched on **August 16** at **11:56 a.m.** aboard SpaceX’s **Falcon 9 Transporter-11**; it deployed at **T+1:19:06**, traveling **17,000 miles per hour** at about **324 miles** above Earth. The satellite was **built by Planet Labs** using **NASA JPL** technology and was funded to date through **philanthropy** (notably **High Tide Foundation** and **Bloomberg Philanthropies**); additional **private and government funding** is identified as necessary to scale more satellites. - **Data, integration and next steps:** Carbon Mapper (nonprofit) and partners (including **RMI**) will add Tanager-1 observations to existing public resources (**Carbon Mapper data portal**, **NASA EMIT**, airborne surveys) and integrate measurements into tools such as **OCI+** and **WasteMap**; the coalition is awaiting **"first light" in the months ahead** when initial observations are transmitted. The article references coordination with other programs (**MethaneSAT**, **Global Methane Pledge/charters**) and technical targets such as certifying low-methane gas with **less than 0.2 percent** emission intensity.

The preprint by Laurel Régibeau-Rockett (Stanford University; National Research Council) and Morgan E. O'Neill (University of Toronto) applies isentropic analysis to a suite of five moist-to-near-dry CM1 RCE simulations varying surface relative humidity (β = 1, 0.75, 0.5, 0.25, 0.1) to study how convection responds to surface drying. - **Main analysis and findings:** The authors run CM1 version 21.1 simulations in a non-rotating 84 km × 84 km doubly-periodic domain with a fixed SST (301.5 K) and varied surface moisture scaling **β** (1 → 0.1). They report **PBL deepening and LCL lifting**, an **80% increase in isentropic mass circulation Δψ** between the moist and driest runs, a **95% decrease in mean precipitation rate** from β=1 to β=0.1, reduced domain-integrated radiative cooling and surface heat fluxes with drying, and an apparent invariance of convective-top temperature to surface drying (result sensitive to PBL parameterization). - **Background, methods, and data availability:** The simulations use the YSU PBL, Morrison double-moment microphysics (with sensitivity tests using Thompson and NSSL schemes), RRTMG radiation, and include sensitivity tests for PBL schemes (MYNN and GFS-EDMF). Data and modified model source code are archived on **Zenodo** (DOIs: 10.5281/zenodo.17352677, 10.5281/zenodo.17352688), and the preprint is posted on **EarthArXiv** (Published 2025-10-24; submitted to Journal of the Atmospheric Sciences).

The Canadian Space Agency announced the granting of two contracts totalling over $5.4 million to advance the TICFIRE instrument for the HAWC satellite mission. - **Two contracts totalling over $5.4 million** awarded to **ABB Inc.** and **Honeywell’s operations in Canada** to advance concepts and critical technologies for the **TICFIRE instrument**, and to develop comprehensive system designs and detailed cost assessments; HAWC is planned to orbit above the Arctic to measure **thin ice clouds** and **far-infrared emissions**. - **HAWC** is led scientifically by **Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM)**, involves **14 Canadian universities**, **Environment and Climate Change Canada**, and the **National Research Council Canada**, and will be supported by combined funding from the **CSA** and **NSERC**; it is intended to contribute to a potential **NASA-led AOS** mission targeted for **2031 at the earliest**, and the mission is expected to support **160 high-paying jobs** over its lifetime.

Hana Bobáľová and Šimon Opravil developed a Google Earth Engine code to compute land surface emissivity using NDVI-based methods and to derive Landsat LST via both the Radiative Transfer Equation (RTE) and Statistical Mono-Window (SMW) algorithms. - **Main action:** Implemented GEE code that (1) estimates **land surface emissivity using NDVI-based methods**, (2) computes **LST using the radiative transfer equation**, and (3) integrates **NDVI-based emissivity into the statistical mono-window (SMW)** approach; validated against **SURFRAD in situ radiometers** and demonstrated in **Bratislava, Slovakia**. Key parameters tested include **48 emissivity variants**, Landsat missions **4–9**, and NDVI thresholds **NDVI_S = 0.2**, **NDVI_V = 0.5**, with additional tests at **NDVI_V = 0.85** for vegetated stations. - **Background and details:** The study addresses limitations of **ASTER GEDv3** (missing values, artifacts) by using **NDVI-THM and SNDVI-THM** emissivity methods; validation used the **SURFRAD network (USA)** with pyrgeometer radiance matched to Landsat acquisition times. Results show **SMW + NDVI-based emissivity** provided higher LST precision than **ASTER-corrected** products and RTE methods; accuracy was **highest on bare soil**, **lowest on mixed surfaces**, and **overestimation at high temperatures** was more pronounced in Landsat ST and RTE on mixed/vegetated surfaces.

Digital Telecom (a subsidiary of Digital Afrique Telecom - DAT) announced a strategic partnership with Estonia’s AS Datel to deploy satellite monitoring and digital cadastral solutions across African governments. The press release was issued from **Port Louis, Mauritius** on **October 22, 2025**. - **Main announcement / action:** Digital Telecom and **AS Datel** will deploy an **advanced electronic cadaster system** and **satellite-based monitoring** across Africa to modernize land administration, detect illegal constructions, and monitor illegal mining. Agreed actions include implementation of **editable cadastral maps**, **automated land tax modules**, **address enforcement capabilities**, and integration with **secure national data exchange systems** for local and national authorities. - **Background and project details:** The partnership leverages **Estonia’s e-governance expertise** and combines **satellite imagery** with **geospatial analytics** and official registry data. The release cites a Spain example (municipality of Algete) where satellite detection uncovered **over 300 undeclared constructions, 300 mis-declared large buildings, and 150 unregistered pools**; the partners will use similar cross-referencing with municipal permit and mining registry data to identify undeclared buildings and unlicensed mining operations. No implementation timelines or contract values were provided in the release.

The UK Space Agency-funded MANTIS satellite mission, developed by Open Cosmos, has completed its mission and safely deorbited. - **Main announcement/action:** **MANTIS completed its mission and safely deorbited**, with **Open Cosmos** leading the satellite’s design, build and operations; the mission was **funded by the UK Space Agency via the ESA InCubed programme** and was the **first satellite mission funded and supported from concept to launch**. Statements in the release are attributed to **Harshbir Sangha (UK Space Agency)**, **Rafel Jordà (CEO, Open Cosmos)** and **Simonetta Cheli (Director, ESA Earth Observation Programmes)**. - **Background and technical details:** Built on a **12U CubeSat platform** with a novel optical payload from **Satlantis**, MANTIS operated in a **Sun-synchronous orbit** delivering **high-resolution multispectral imagery** with **revisit times of a few days**; it used **onboard processing (filtering and compression)** to enable rapid data delivery, and **Terrabotics** provided downstream analytics for sectors including **energy, mining and infrastructure**, while also contributing data for **environmental monitoring and resource management**.

The University of Houston and an international team published a study in Nature Communications proposing the integration of spaceborne MT-InSAR satellite monitoring with existing Structural Health Monitoring (SHM) to improve global bridge risk assessment. - **Main announcement:** The study of **744 long-span bridges** finds that incorporating **MT-InSAR (spaceborne radar)** into risk frameworks can cut the number of bridges classified as **high-risk by one-third**, and that **spaceborne monitoring could provide regular oversight for more than 60%** of the world’s long-span bridges; the research explicitly evaluated monitoring availability from **ESA Sentinel-1** and **NASA NISAR**. - **Background and details:** The international team (including **Pietro Milillo** at University of Houston, **Dominika Malinowska** at TU Delft, and researchers at the **University of Bath**) used **Multi-Temporal Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar (MT-InSAR)** and persistent scatterers (PS) to detect millimetre-scale displacements; the paper notes **SHM sensors are installed on fewer than 20%** of long-span bridges and highlights largest monitoring gaps in **Africa** and **Oceania**.

Galen Richardson et al. have published a preprint reviewing Landsat change detection methods using machine learning (preprint DOI: https://doi.org/10.31223/X54Q99; published version DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/07038992.2024.2448169). - **Main announcement:** The authors present a review paper that synthesizes research on applying **machine learning** to **Landsat change detection**, identifying **two general approaches**—**post-classification comparison** and **sequential imagery stack** methods—and emphasizing key design considerations such as **study area size**, **model specifics**, and **image temporal density**; the paper is a preprint (not peer reviewed) and has a published version (Published: 2025-10-14 16:16). - **Background & details:** The review covers applications across **geography, forestry, hydrology, ecology, agriculture, geology, and public health**, outlines a framework for method selection, and discusses recent developments including **generative artificial intelligence (GenAI)**, **explainable machine learning (xAI)**, and **ethical analysis considerations**; available on EarthArXiv with links to Taylor & Francis PDF proofing and citation pages.

The University of Ottawa team released a deep learning model and Python package to delineate optically deep and optically shallow water in Sentinel-2 imagery. - **Main announcement:** The authors provide a public Python package (Optically-Shallow-Deep) and trained models that classify Sentinel-2 pixels as **optically shallow (OSW)** or **optically deep (ODW)**; the models were trained on **440 globally distributed Sentinel-2 images**, each with **1000 annotated transect points**, yielding a cleaned balanced dataset of **153,994 points**. The best-performing model is a deep neural network applied to ACOLITE atmospheric-corrected data (**R_WL**) achieving **82.5% accuracy** (DNN on R_WL) and producing a full-scene output in **~32 minutes** including atmospheric correction (DNN prediction time for 30 million pixels <6 s; ACOLITE ~9 min per scene). - **Background / details:** The workflow used **kernel-based features** (means and standard deviations for multiple kernel sizes across 11 Sentinel-2 bands) and geographical features (longitude, absolute latitude); dataset split included **264 training, 88 validation, 88 test images**. Models evaluated: **MLC, Random Forest, ExtraTrees, AdaBoost, XGBoost, and DNN**; DNN chosen for a balance of **accuracy, bias, and processing speed**. Funding: **Canadian Space Agency (FAST grant 18FAOTTC04)** and **University of Ottawa (Big Idea grant GR005579)**. Code and data are available at **https://github.com/yulunwu8/Optically-Shallow-Deep**.

The UK Space Agency has commissioned targeted studies to investigate the environmental impacts of satellite re-entry and will host an international workshop to feed findings into global policy. - **Main action:** The UK Space Agency funded three targeted studies (Durham University, University of Southampton, Belstead Ltd) with a fourth **ESA-cofunded** study led by the **University of Leeds** to address uncertainties in **atmospheric ablation** and metal release during satellite re-entry. Key study outputs and recommendations include **Durham**: a comprehensive literature review and gap analysis highlighting uncertainties around **ozone-depleting polar stratospheric clouds** and the need for **improved observational technologies** and **multidisciplinary collaboration**; **Southampton**: a proposed **hybrid approach** combining **material selection**, **design-for-demise**, and **trajectory optimisation** and recommending **investment in UK research infrastructure**; **Belstead Ltd**: a technical assessment of **aluminium vaporisation**, dependence on **particle size and surface properties**, and recommendations for **targeted experimental testing**. The fourth study (University of Leeds) is due to complete later this year. - **Background and international follow-up:** The GNOSIS report (commissioned by the UK Space Agency) identifies critical gaps including lack of **globally agreed metrics**, need for better **tracking of satellites and debris**, improved **modelling of space weather effects**, and more systematic assessment of re-entry impacts. Implementation and outreach events: - UN-led workshop (May 2025) - Date: May 2025 - Location: UN-led (co-chaired by **UNOOSA** and **UNEP**) - Agenda/subject: environmental effects of space activities - Notes: UK was the most represented nation; contributors included experts from **Belstead**, **UCL**, **Birkbeck**, and **ESSI**. - UK Space Agency + Secure World Foundation workshop on atmospheric ablation (21 October) - Date: 21 October (year as stated in article) - Time: null - Location: Paris (ahead of the Summit for Space Sustainability) - Agenda/subject: refine research priorities on **atmospheric ablation** and shape policy recommendations to inform the Summit for Space Sustainability.

The UK Space Agency announces funding for six climate-focused satellite projects under its third Climate Services Call. - **£380,000 combined investment**: The agency is funding **six projects** to turn satellite and drone data into practical climate services, including **woodland health and carbon measurement**, **seagrass protection**, **woodland mapping**, and **tracking agricultural waste for SAF**; named leads include **New Gradient**, **Data Dynamics (with Fangorn)**, **Treeconomy (QUBIST)**, **Amelia Space Technologies**, **2Excel**, and **Plastic-i**. - **Project details and methods**: Projects will deploy **satellite, drone, aerial imagery, machine learning and AI** to (a) measure woodland health and carbon value, (b) test drones and satellite imagery as replacements for foot surveys, (c) develop the QUBIST methodology to quantify forest carbon uncertainty, (d) track agricultural waste for Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF), (e) explore new satellite types for detailed woodland condition assessment, and (f) create the Sequestra tool to detect seagrass damage and estimate carbon storage.