Space agencies want a “space-based Observatory of climate”

AFP

Monday, December 11, 2017 15:01

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Monday, December 11, 2017 15:07

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PARIS | The space agencies of twenty countries have proposed the creation of an ” Observatory of the climate “, aimed to share climate data obtained from space, in a declaration adopted on Monday night in Paris.

China, Japan, India, Europe, the United Kingdom, Germany, Italy, Switzerland, Austria, Sweden, Norway, Romania, Israel, Ukraine, and the United Arab Emirates in particular, have adopted the ” Paris Declaration “, drafted under the leadership of France.

The us agency NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) was not present at the meeting organised at the headquarters of CNES (National Space Studies Centre), on the occasion of the climate summit hosted Tuesday by the French president Emmanuel Macron. The Russian space agency was absent it also.

Out of the 50 essential climate variables to the understanding of climate, 26 are observed from space with satellites. They follow in particular the evolution of the temperatures of the globe, the rising oceans, the emission of greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide and methane.

“To the extent that the monitoring from space is, in essence, independent of borders and universally accessible, the space is particularly relevant to enable the awareness of the issues related to climate change,” according to the Paris Declaration.

“Climate change is a long-term process, it is absolutely vital to have a series of high-quality data extending over a long period of time (at least 30 years),” notes the text.

“The purpose of this space Observatory of the climate is to coordinate all the means that exist,” explained to the AFP Jean-Yves Le Gall, president of CNES.

“Today, most countries do not share their satellite data on the climate. There must be a free movement of such data, ” he says. “But it is also important that countries agree on the nomenclature of these data, on their form, so that we can compare “.

“The Paris Declaration will make it possible to launch the movement “. “The Chinese are full of going,” says the boss of the CNES, which hopes to create ” a virtuous circle “.

In the case of the United States, he believes ” it will end by their neutrality in respect of the space Observatory “.

In a first step, the agencies favourable to the project will reflect a common standard for their climate data.

“The goal is to then create a site gathering all the data,” as it already exists for the spatial data on natural disasters at the global level, says Jean-Yves Le Gall.

The French minister of Research, Frédérique Vidal, presented at the CNES, praised ” the strong commitment of the community spatial world “, to which she agreed ” fully “.