ESA Climate Office

🛰️The ESA Climate Change Initiative is heading to #EGU26 in Vienna, 4–8 May – come and learn from leading scientists in satellite climate research! Numerous projects will be presenting the latest in satellite climate science. Find us at booth #X201 in Exhibition Hall X2, right next to the EGU stand. climate.esa.int/en/news-events…

The European State of the Climate 2025 from @CopernicusECMWF and @WMO is out today. Key findings: Record wildfire-burned area and emissions, the highest sea surface temperatures on record, glacier loss across all European regions, and snow cover at its third lowest on record. ESA Climate Change Initiative data was used to track lake surface water temperatures, revealing that 81% of European lakes were warmer than average in 2025. Full report: climate.copernicus.eu/esotc/2025?utm…

Antarctica is gaining ice mass – but that's not the good news it sounds. 🧊 Iceberg calving is up nearly 100 gigatonnes per year, yet a snowfall surge is outpacing it – for now. New ESA-funded research explains why. 👉 climate.esa.int/en/news-events…

Satellites provide a full view of sea ice across both the Arctic and Antarctic. These measurements are validated using many non-satellite observations including planes, submarines, moorings, ships and drifting buoys. Researchers have just compared both across 30 years of Arctic and Antarctic data. The result: yes, they hold up well against each other when spatail and temporal, representiveness between measurements are taken into account – giving scientists greater confidence in three decades of polar observations. 👉 Full study: doi.org/10.5194/essd-1…

Need targeted land cover change analysis? New CCI Toolbox Notebooks let you focus on specific regions and track environmental changes over decades 🔎 Thanks to smarter organisation of climate data in the form of Data Trees, you can monitor how landscapes transform over time using high-resolution datasets spanning 1990-2019. This is perfect for studying deforestation, agricultural changes and ecosystem transitions. Enhance your land cover research by accessing regional tiles via place names instead of sifting through vast global datasets. Each tile becomes an independent dataset, ready for time series analysis, trend detection and change quantification, using all Toolbox operations. Start exploring land cover changes in your region: github.com/esa-cci/esa-cl…

🧊 A glacier in Tibet collapsed in 2022 – releasing 40 million m³ of ice, unnoticed for two years. It was satellite data that revealed what had happened: the glacier tongue had disappeared. Using imagery from the ESA Climate Change Initiative, scientists were able to reconstruct the entire event, pinpointing the exact time of the collapse and tracking how the glacier had accelerated from 0.2 to 46 metres per day in the months prior to the collapse 🛰️ Read more about this and the impact it had on the lake below here: climate.esa.int/en/news-events…

Last chance to register! Our webinar on permafrost thaw is in 2 days. Annett Bartsch will show how satellites track permafrost thaw across Arctic lowlands & mountain regions, and what nearly 30 years of data reveal: where it’s accelerating and how unevenly. Secure your spot: tinyurl.com/k6mhk53z

Last month, Anny Cazenave showed us what decades of satellite data reveal about the rising level of the seas. One key takeaway: Sustained monitoring from space is crucial for detecting accelerating or irreversible changes and informing adaptation policy. Watch the recording for full insights: climate.esa.int/en/climate-cha…

Permafrost covers almost a quarter of the land surface in the Northern Hemisphere. And it's thawing. In our webinar on 22 April, Annett Bartsch will address important questions like: 🧊 How can we identify permafrost thawing from space? 🧊 What are the differences between the Arctic lowlands and mountain areas? 🧊 Where are the global hotspots of permafrost thaw? Don't miss it and register here: us02web.zoom.us/webinar/regist…

🚀A huge thank you to @UKSEDS and all participants who joined our Visualising Climate with ESA Satellite-Derived Data training in March! From beginners to advanced users, everyone got hands-on with @esa Climate Change Initiative data. Attendees explored satellite data to study urban heat islands & extreme weather trends using JupyterLab & the ESA CCI Toolbox. 🛰️📊 Training materials are now live. Access the Jupyter Notebook and dive in: climate.esa.int/en/climate-cha…

Annett Bartsch has dedicated her career to understanding what's happening with ice beneath the surface. As Science Lead of ESA CCI+ Permafrost, she uses satellite data to track ground temperature changes across Arctic lowlands and mountain regions – from rising temperatures to accelerating rock glacier movement. Join her webinar: us02web.zoom.us/webinar/regist…

📢 The @WCRP_climate's Coordinated Regional Climate Downscaling Experiment (CORDEX) project office will now be jointly hosted by @esa and @UCT_news. Its work on regional climate downscaling and projections is essential for local adaptation planning.We're looking forward to using Earth Observation to strengthen global climate science and modelling. 🌍

Clock's ticking ⏳ 26 April is the last day to sign up for the 4th Land Surface Temperature User Workshop of ESA's Climate Change Initiative, which is taking place from 12 to 14 May 2026. Three days of satellite data, research insights and hands-on training at the Met Office in Exeter. 👉 Secure your spot now: climate.esa.int/en/projects/la…

Are you a specialist in land surface climate research? @ESA is hiring a Climate Applications Scientist to lead Earth observation projects on terrestrial carbon and water cycles in support of global climate policy. 📍ECSAT in Harwell, UK 📅Application deadline: 21 April 2026 Learn more here: climate.esa.int/en/news-events…

Permafrost is thawing across the globe and nearly 30 years of satellite data show it's accelerating 🛰️ Join the next ESA Climate Change Initiative webinar with @ccipermafrost Science Lead Annett Bartsch to learn how Earth observation captures these changes. 22 April | 16:00 CEST | Register here: us02web.zoom.us/webinar/regist…

🌍Bring your climate data to life with stunning 3D visualisations! Three new Jupyter Notebooks show you how to create 3D visualisations using Climate Change Initiative data and Python libraries. ✨ See your data from new perspectives 🎨 Transform your data into compelling visual stories with step-by-step explanations 🔧 Complete workflow from data opening to visualisation These demonstrators reveal aspects of climate data that are usually overlooked, expanding the possibilities of working with climate datasets. Ready to create your own visual masterpieces? Explore the Notebooks: github.com/esa-cci/ect-de…

Lakes are among the most sensitive indicators of climate change. Measuring them has just become significantly more precise🔎 ESA’s Lakes Climate Change Initiative project has released version 3.0 of its satellite-based lake observation dataset. This update features longer observation time series, now spanning 1992–2023; improved spatial coverage across 2,024 lakes globally; new geophysical and biogeochemical variables; and enhanced algorithms for specific variables. The full dataset and documentation are freely available via the ESA CCI Open Data Portal: climate.esa.int/en/catalogue/a…

That's a wrap on the Climate Change Initiative Colocation & Climate Modelling User Group Integration Meeting 2026 at ESA ECSAT!🛰️Three days of insightful presentations, productive breakout sessions and substantial discussions on the future of ESA's climate programme. Thank you to everyone who contributed. What a community!🌍

.@WMO’s Global #StateOfClimate unveils the state of the climate system in 2025 It highlights that the Earth's Energy Imbalance has reached its highest value since the beginning of the observational record in 1960. Heat has been accumulating in the Earth’s system: in the ocean, the atmosphere, on land and in frozen regions of the planet. As a result, the total amount of heat stored on Earth is not just increasing but accelerating. The report also cites research findings from the projects of @ESA's Climate Change Initiative, which show that the highest global mean sea surface temperatures ever recorded in satellite data were measured in 2023-24.🌡️These changes are causing severe ecosystem damage, undermining coastal livelihoods, increasing extreme weather risks and weakening the ocean’s capacity to absorb carbon. Read the full report: t1p.de/xptfd

Kicking off today at ESA ECSAT near Oxford: the annual Climate Change Initiative Colocation & Climate Modelling User Group Integration Meeting!📍 👥Over three days, the community meets to share the latest Earth observation research to address Essential Climate Variables; strengthening climate science and modelling; and support progress towards the UNFCCC Paris Agreement goals. On the agenda: new ECV projects, Supporting Paris inclusive health, cities biodiversity, tipping elements, Coupled Model Intercomparison Project Seventh Assessment Report and panels discussions on uncertainties and data gaps🌏 We look forward to a productive few days of exchange and collaboration!