Europe’s Satellites Could Help Catch the Next Climate Disaster
The European Space Agency has taken the lead in building planetary simulations to predict major climate disruption.
The European Space Agency’s Sentinel-3 satellite captures snow cover and clouds across the Alps on Dec. 14.
Credit: ESA/Copernicus
Spain began the new year battling Storm Filomena, a once-in-a-generation weather event that blanketed Madrid in snow and paralyzed the economy. Health workers were stranded, supermarkets shut, and the army was called in. At least four people died.
“Now, consider a government or company that knew two weeks ago there was a risk that this would happen,” said Francisco Doblas-Reyes, a physicist at Barcelona’s Supercomputing Center. “Knowing the risk that a 1-in-20-year event was going to happen would have given more possibilities to prepare.”