Applications of Earth Observation

Over the past decade, Earth Observation has undergone rapid scientific and technical progress, and as a result, it has incorporated into our everyday lives and become a valuable resource for society.

Google earth is typically the first example we think of when we initially hear about Earth Observation. But, Google Earth only represents a minor part of all the uses for earth observation. Multiple images captured via satellites, aircrafts, and other aerial photography systems are used to create Google Earth. It, in reality, is a mosaic, which means; produced by arranging together small pieces of collected images. And each of those pictures was shot by different sources at a different time. As a result, Google Earth is not a real-time map. However google has precisely linked the map to the GPS data and offers location services, which are really utilised by our everyday usages like Google Map,? Uber.

Google earth is for visualising and analysing satellite images of our planet. Scientists and non-profits use Earth Engine for remote sensing research, predicting disease outbreaks, natural resource management, and more.(Ref: https://www.google.com/earth/education/tools/google-earth-engine/)?

When we are considering Earth Observation, the major commercial uses of Earth Observation are as follows;?

1. Weather
2. Ocean Studies
3. Asset Monitoring

Since the amount of spatial data produced by earth observation via satellites is vast, it is difficult to put it to good use for the growing range of global challenges, which are also generating more demand for solutions and innovations such as;?

• Risks, Hazards and Resilience
• Governance of food security
• Water management?
• Geo health??
• Frameworks for urban search and rescue
• Geothermal energy as part of our energy shift?
• How can we defend against the weather-related threats to our crops?
• How do we improve our agricultural practices from a governance view?
• Flood mitigations, Water management and more

We could see our earth in a completely new way. It's only from space that you can see the earth as a coherent whole as a whole planet. Here you can find 100 Earth Shattering Remote Sensing Applications & Uses; https://gisgeography.com/remote-sensing-applications/?

Earth Observation has really helped us understand how our planet works as a whole. It’s important to remember that two thirds of the earth's surface is water, and it's hard to see the water from a ship or even from an aeroplane. In order to see the whole picture, you need space. For example, the satellite view has changed our understanding of how our ocean works. We could see on a large scale how the ocean carried the heat around the planet. It helps to understand the climate, weather and ocean circulation.

We can now expect accurate weather forecasts, in part because we have optimised algorithms to use space data. Weather for tomorrow and next week with a high degree of certainty. Even though there are many platforms to predict the weather, companies and researchers are still trying to find a way to predict natural disasters like floods, and droughts.

We need to know if we need to control emission of carbon dioxide, greenhouse gases, because the climate is changing. The only way to get a full picture of the global climate situation is to use information from space, where you can see the whole planet and find out on a large scale such as if the ice caps are really melting and growing, lakes are dissiaparing, forests are disappearing.