UK Heatwaves Hit Five!

Everyone in Europe will know that this year has been a hot one. Last week the UK experienced its fifth heatwave of the 2026, and a sixth is forecast for next month. For this country a heatwave is declared when … Continue reading

First Data and New Launches

This week has seen the release of the first publicly available batches of Earth Observation (EO) data from the NASA-ISRO Synthetic Aperture Radar (NISAR) mission, and a commercial rocket from China launching 9 satellites including several EO payloads. NISAR Data … Continue reading

Latest Earth Observation Satellite Missions

Tuesday 7th July saw the latest SpaceX rideshare mission, Transporter-17, take off when a Falcon 9 rocket took over 80 satellite payloads into orbit from California’s Vandenberg Space Force Base. As usual with these rideshare missions, there were several Earth … Continue reading

Satellite Collaboration: Yes or No?

Highlighting two contrasting approaches to satellite sovereignty within the Earth Observation (EO) sector this week, starting with news on the demise of Sentinel-1A and then moving onto interesting reports from Russia. Sentinel-1A Following last week’s blog about the contract for … Continue reading

Earth Observation Data Continuity

One of the key benefits of Earth Observation (EO) is the principle of data continuity – this is having uninterrupted, consistent, long-term datasets available over large areas. This is critical for a variety of reasons, such as understanding what is … Continue reading

Tolkien’s Low Earth Satellite!

Last week was spent surrounded by the dreaming spires of Oxford, at the EarthCARE Science and Validation workshop. The EarthCARE (Earth Cloud Aerosol and Radiation Explorer) satellite, nicknamed HakuryÅ« (Japanese for “white dragon”), is an amazing European Space Agency/Japanese Space … Continue reading

Connecting the Digital World in Helsinki

Last week I attended the Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) Connect Helsinki – it was OGC’s 135th Technical Meeting – titled ‘Interoperable Systems, Real-World Impact – A Global Community at Work.’ The meeting took place between the 1st and 4th June … Continue reading

First Lights and Satellite Launches

This week is all about Asia, as we’re highlighting the first light images of a Taiwanese satellite, plus the latest Chinese launches, and a test flight of a high-altitude platform balloon in India. Taiwan Taiwan has confirmed that its first … Continue reading

Sargassum To Break Records In 2026?

This year is expected to see a record-breaking amount of Sargassum biomass in the Atlantic Ocean according to forecasts from the Mexico based National Earth Observation Laboratory (LANOT), who estimate that 40 million tonnes of the biomass will be circulating … Continue reading

Latest Rideshare Satellites

On Sunday, 3rd May, SpaceX launched its latest rideshare mission, from the Vandenberg Space Force Base in California, on a Falcon 9 rocket that was carrying 45 satellites on board. As usual with these rideshare missions, there were several Earth … Continue reading