Satellite Generated Atmospheric and Climatic Data

Lecture given by Dr.Shahnawaz of Paris Lodron University Salzburg

Part 1: Data Volume and The Global Nature of Climate Change

This lecture focused primarily on describing what data is being collected about the climate and the satellite platforms being used to collect said data. Interwoven throughout the talk was a discussion on climate change and the impact of humans on climate and vice versa. As such, my reflections on this talk fell into two main themes: the global nature of climate change and the volume of climate data that is being collected.

One of the most impactful moments of the lecture for me was when Dr. Shahnawaz was talking about air pollution. It reminded me of a speech I heard during a conference on climate change. The speaker talked about the hypocrisy of industrialized nations who were blaming industrializing nations and their emissions for causing global warming even though industrialized nations had followed the very same practices themselves previously. The speaker talked about how being eco-friendly and converting to green energy was a privilege of industrialization. As a result of that speech, I began to think about climate change in a very political sense but Dr. Shahnawaz’s lecture changed how I think about the scale of climate change. Previously I had thought that the “fair” way to combat climate change would be for every country to put in as much effort and resources into combatting it as they did to cause it, but as Dr. Shahnawaz showed that really does not make sense. In his lecture Dr. Shahnawaz highlighted the global nature of climate change and pollution. He showed that while not everyone is contributing equally to climate change everyone is affected by it; that the effects of global warming and pollution cannot be contained within space or political boundaries. As a result, I have stopped thinking about what is “fair” in regards to combatting climate change. Everyone is affected by it so everyone needs to do as much as they can to combat it, regardless of political affiliation or the degree to which they have contributed to climate change.

This brings us to the second theme of my reflections: the volume of climactic data that is available. As Dr. Shahnawaz showed, there are many satellites collecting all sorts of data on different factors related to the climate from temperature, to air quality, to the amount of sea ice present, and these satellites have been collecting data for years. Of particular focus during this lecture were the Aqua, Terra, TRMM, and GPM satellites which have been in orbit for decades now and all of which have multiple sensors

I was impressed with the advances that had been made in collecting remotely sensed climactic data and the massive amounts of data we now have access to. However, this awareness also prompted a lot of questions to pop up in my mind as well. It made me wonder if there is such as thing a too much data? With all this data do we have the resources to use it effectively or it is just wasting away in a storage facility? Is all this data being used to its full potential, is it being analyze effectively? Moreover, for some variables we rely heavily on interpolation, a calculation that can be influenced by a wide variety of factors. Are these measurements reliable? How do we fact check interpolated values? What do these different methods of data creation mean for action on the ground and policy recommendations?

Without a doubt, these advances and the massive amounts of data available have been effective in serving as early warnings for disastrous events and in emergency preparedness planning, but as with anything as powerful as this data there needs to be some means of assessing the use and accuracy of the data and methods being used.

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