Environmental legacy of satellite data

Anderson, K., Brewin, R.J.W., Mleczko, M.M., Mueller, M., Shutler, J.D., Wilkinson, R., Yan, X. & Gaston, K.J. 2024. The dark side of Earth observation. Nature Sustainability 7, 224-227.
Earth Observation (EO) satellites have transformed understanding of the state and trajectories of Earth’s environment. Recent mushrooming of EO satellites and of resultant data that are stored, distributed and processed, often on the cloud, generate widespread environmental impacts that demand urgent consideration, particularly given that EO data outlive EO satellites.
- Rewiring ecological networks
- Correcting bias in species distribution models