Earth, seen through 12 different satellites datasets🌎🛰️

Every layer tells a story — and together they help us understand a changing planet.
#Earthday2026

How many people does heat actually kill? It depends on how you count it

On The Climate Brink, I write about different ways of counting heat-related mortality.

I think this is important info for everyone who wants to talk about climate impacts.

open.substack.com/pub/theclima...

California just hit an inflection point for batteries California's electric grid just broke a new record, providing as much power during peak demand as six Hoover Dams.

Of course, the ironic part is that wind & solar has gotten substantially more resilient over the 5 yrs of this survey with the emergence of low-cost batteries. Thanks to @mzjacobson.bsky.social for continuing to spread the gospel www.fastcompany.com/91519839/cal...

Americans' Shifting Views on Energy Sources, Policy in 2026 | Pew Research Center A growing majority of Republicans prioritize the development of fossil fuel energy sources like oil and natural gas.

Whoa, now Dems / liberals are falling for the fossil fuel propaganda. A reminder that air pollution alone causes millions of premature deaths globally. This alone necessitates an urgent switch to renewables, let alone CO2. A LOT of work to do on our messaging. www.pewresearch.org/science/2026...

California just hit an inflection point for batteries California's electric grid just broke a new record, providing as much power during peak demand as six Hoover Dams.

The ironic part is that wind & solar has gotten substantially more resilient over the 5 yrs of this survey with the emergence of low-cost batteries. Thanks to @mzjacobson.bsky.social for continuing to spread the gospel www.fastcompany.com/91519839/cal...

If I'm interpreting correctly, this is the mean daily temperature, so actually the perfect high temperature is in the low 80s. The climatological mean daily temp of 73.8 F occurs on June 7 and Sept 10 in the DC area, fwiw

In lighter news, apparently there IS a perfect outdoor temperature: 73.8F! Interesting article: www.mountsinai.org/about/newsro... @capitalweather.bsky.social

Congratulations!!!

Trump Administration to Pay $1 Billion to Energy Giant to Cancel Wind Farms

This is about as sick as it gets.

Trump Administration to Pay $1 Billion to Energy Giant to Cancel Wind Farms. In exchange, the French company TotalEnergies would invest in oil and natural gas projects in Texas and elsewhere.

www.nytimes.com/2026/03/23/c...

People will get sicker. More people will have heart attacks and lung disease and other health challenges because of pollution. People’s lives will get worse, and shorter. People you know. Maybe me. Maybe you.

Trump administration to dismantle key climate research center Russell Vought, who directs the White House Office of Management and Budget, announced plans to split up the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colorado, citing concerns about “clima...

Trump administration to dismantle key climate research center

Any such plan "would set back our nation’s ability to predict, prepare for, and respond to severe weather and other natural disasters,” said Antonio Busalacchi, who oversees the center: www.washingtonpost.com/climate-envi...

New 📄! We inter-compare satellite-based NASA TEMPO column NO2 with ground monitor surface NO2. Correlation is very good; best in the mid-AM and worst in the late-PM. The work highlights when and where satellite data best represents surface air quality. agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1029/...

Very exciting to see geostationary air quality data to become available over Europe! Lots to learn!

The new Copernicus Sentinel-4 mission has delivered its first images, highlighting concentrations of atmospheric nitrogen dioxide, sulphur dioxide and ozone. Despite being preliminary, these images mark a major milestone in Europe’s ability to monitor air quality all the way from geostationary orbit, 36 000 kilometres above Earth. This image depicts tropospheric nitrogen dioxide with clear pollution hotspots visible along the Mediterranean coast and over Italy’s Po Valley.

This image presents a vertical column density of sulphur dioxide. A distinct plume can be seen emerging from Mount Etna in Italy and drifting south-eastwards over the sea. Although Etna is currently relatively calm, much larger plumes are typically observed during periods of heightened volcanic activity. In addition to natural emissions from volcanoes, sulphur dioxide is also released through human activities, particularly from ships burning high-sulphur fuels and power plants using brown coal.

This image shows a vertical column of ozone. While ozone high up in the stratosphere plays a crucial role in shielding life on Earth from harmful ultraviolet radiation, ozone in the lower atmosphere acts as a pollutant, contributing to poor air quality and respiratory problems. The overall ozone levels here are within the expected range.

This image of Europe and part of North Africa is based on the first Earth radiance spectra measured by Sentinel-4. The false-colour image, generated by assigning the signals in specific spectral ranges to red, green and blue, shows the land, ocean and clouds as expected.

😎 First glimpses from space!

The new #Copernicus Sentinel-4 mission has delivered its first preliminary images during commissioning.

Sentinel-4’s spectrometer is hosted on @eumetsat.int's MTG-S1 satellite 🧪🌍

@josefaschbacher.esa.int @ec.europa.eu @esaearth.esa.int

☹️ But can you attend as "Bryan" Stauffer, an unassuming citizen who has an obsessive interest in ozonesonde calibration? In all seriousness, hoping for a resolution within the week🤞

Found this somewhat positive news: Maryland & DC have 50% less CO2 emissions than 20 years ago (www.eia.gov/todayinenerg...) A portion of this decrease is because coal plants closed in-state and out-of-state coal plants took some of the load. Nonetheless, don't lose sight of the progress we've made!

Chris Hayes and Bill McKibben on 'The Most Important Good Story Right Now' YouTube video by MSNBC

Things being what they are these days, genuinely good and encouraging news is the rarest of unicorns. So when I say that this discussion left me heartened and optimistic in a way few things have lately, I mean it. A must listen talk between @chrislhayes.bsky.social and @billmckibben.bsky.social

Aura - NASA Science Earth Orbiter

Happy 21st birthday to NASA’s Aura satellite, launched 15 July 2004. It revolutionized atmospheric composition measurements from space and sustained mutually beneficial validation activities such as our SHADOZ ozonesonde network. science.nasa.gov/mission/aura/

Almost 2 years of TEMPO NO2 data now available. NO2 air pollution cannot hide!

While this NO2 map looks 🤩, NO2 pollution declines have stagnated over the past 10 years or so. The plot should be more blue by now...

Methane-Tracking Satellite Is Lost, in a Blow to Climate Efforts

MethaneSAT unfortunately has been lost ☹️

BUT there's still about 11 months worth of data that will continue to be useful. AND we still have TROPOMI, GHGSAT, and the GOSAT series as methane-tracking alternatives. www.nytimes.com/2025/07/02/c...

Sentinel 4 and GOSAT-GW have been successfully launched! New air pollution and climate measurements coming soon led by EU and Japan respectively

Sentinel 4: NO2, HCHO, etc. every hr over Europe
GOSAT-GW: NO2 & CO2 globally

spaceflightnow.com/2025/07/01/l...

www.nasaspaceflight.com/2025/06/gosa...

Economists warn Trump's research cuts could have dire consequences for GDP President Trump has proposed slashing federal scientific funding. Economists say the long-term consequences could be dire.

Economists warn: Trump’s science cuts threaten the U.S. economy.

Slashing funding for NIH, NSF, and NASA hurts every American. These cuts are killing jobs, stalling innovation, and shrinking our economic future.

We all pay the price when science is defunded.

www.npr.org/2025/05/08/n...

Why 35 House Democrats Joined Republicans Against a Major Climate Policy

In a series of terrible but unsurprising decisions, this is terrible and surprising... Democrats voting against EVs. It's hard to overstate how successful the oil&gas propaganda machine is. Enough Democrats are falling for it (and to be fair I used to too)
www.nytimes.com/2025/05/06/c...

Yesterday 30 Apr, the TROPOMI sensor on the Sentinel-5P satellite observed large amounts of nitrogen dioxide (NO2) originating from metro regions in the Northeast US & southern Canada, including New York City, Philadelphia, Detroit, Cleveland, Pittsburgh & Toronto. @dgoldbergaq.bsky.social

Next exciting satellite to measure air quality and greenhouse gases to launch in less than 2 months, June 24, 2025. GOSAT-GW to be launched by the Japanese (JAXA). Measuring CO2, CH4 and NO2 at the same time 😍 www.nies.go.jp/whatsnew/202...

😢

Image credit: NOAA On Dec. 21, 2024, NOAA’s GOES-19 captured this image of Earth during the winter solstice shortly after the Northern Hemisphere reached its maximum tilt away from the sun, positioning the sun directly over the Tropic of Capricorn at 23.5° south latitude.

🌍 This #EarthDay, science needs you more than ever.

We celebrate our planet through stunning imagery and vital data—but we can’t protect what we don’t understand.

#StandUpForScience #AGUAction

You know what pisses me off the most? NASA's budget is a meager 0.48% of the annual federal budget. The "savings" of cutting its $23b budget in half is less than a penny on the dollar (~$0.0024/dollar). It's hardly a drop in the ocean, but the science and progress we'd lose would be immeasurable.

In a series of very bad news, this is very very bad news. It boggles my mind that anyone thinks that not monitoring our Earth somehow makes humanity better off.

Under mostly cloud-free skies yesterday 8 Apr, the TROPOMI sensor on the Sentinel 5-P satellite shows buildup of nitrogen dioxide (NO2) from urban regions across western Europe (dark red shading). @esaearth.esa.int @dgoldbergaq.bsky.social