Trump disables climate observation satellites operated by ESA: ESA's reaction

The European Space Agency (ESA) is taking significant strides in climate research, as it announces the development of the Copernicus-CO2M mission. This novelty in ESA's mission aims to specifically measure CO2 emitted by humans in Earth's atmosphere, addressing a critical aspect of global warming.

The agency is currently expanding its fleet, with the first of three Copernicus-CO2M satellites scheduled to be launched by the end of 2026. This move comes amidst a global effort to combat climate change, as other countries, such as Japan and the UK-France partnership, also operate satellites for measuring greenhouse gases. Japan, for instance, has three satellites, Gosat, Gosat-2, and Gosat-GW, in orbit for this purpose.

The British-French satellite MicroCarb and the Japanese satellites join the existing fleet of ESA's Sentinel-5 and Sentinel-5P, which target methane but can also measure CO2. Sentinel-5P has been in operation since 2017, while its predecessor, Sentinel-5, was recently launched and needs to be commissioned.

However, the loss of the Orbiting Carbon Observatory (OCO) satellites, OCO-2 and OCO-3, would be a significant setback for climate research. NASA, under former President Donald Trump's administration, ordered the development of shutdown plans for the OCO satellites. If deactivated, no specific replacements for these satellites have been named, as they are currently the most sensitive and accurate missions monitoring atmospheric CO2 and related climate data, with no other operational or planned satellites matching their capabilities.

The ESA does not prioritize taking over the OCO instruments due to budget commitments and the Copernicus program of the EU. Instead, the agency emphasizes preserving the datasets collected by OCO together with partners. The OCO consists of the OCO-2 satellite launched in 2014 and the OCO-3 instrument installed on the International Space Station since 2019.

The Copernicus-CO2M satellites, although not mentioned earlier, are a testament to ESA's commitment to the Copernicus program, a priority mission for the agency. This commitment is also reflected in the ESA's efforts to preserve the OCO datasets, demonstrating a shared global responsibility in addressing climate change.