"Out of the 50 essential climate variables established by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), 26 can only be seen from space," recently pointed out Jean-Yves Le Gall, President of French space agency CNES. In other words, it's hard to understand the impact of climate change on our planet today without using space-based technologies. Space opens up a wide spectrum of applications, including oceanography, meteorology and environmental monitoring. The data gathered by scientists has become more and more accurate thanks to satellites and their increasingly powerful instruments. Technological advances in altimetry, as well as high and very-high-resolution optical and radar observation systems all play a major role in this effort.

All concerned by climate change, a large number of scientists, space program managers, European space agencies and international organizations (ESA, CNES, ASI, Eumetsat, etc.), along with actors in key civil sectors - such as architecture, urban development, agriculture and emergency services - kindly accepted to contribute to the "Climate Change & satellites" book, published at the initiative of Thales Alenia Space in anticipation of the COP21 event,

The book includes articles written by some of today's leading climate specialists, including Jean Jouzel, Antonio Nobre, Shaun Quegan, Anny Cazenave, Serge Planton, Lee Lueng Fu, and many more. Featured on the Thales stand at the Le Bourget Air and Space Museum until December 9, 2015, this work summarizes current knowledge of climate change and space-based applications. It underscores the necessity of launching concrete environmental measures – constant front page news these days – to protect future generations from the consequences of global warming. To learn more about the book or to read it on-line, please click here.