According to the latest report of the climate assessment issued by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), human-induced climate change is creating serious and widespread disturbance in nature, impacting the lives of billions of people worldwide.

An Australian research team has developed a data-driven tool in proof-of-concept research for regional scale that can predict landslides up to a year in advance.

The tool has the potential to be a significant way to safeguard people against fatal natural disasters: around 25-50 people are killed by landslides each year in the United States alone, and the global annual death toll is estimated in thousands.

The United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs (UNOOSA) signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the European Union Agency for the Space Programme (EUSPA) to support United Nations Member States. Advancing the long-standing cooperation between the parties will further contribute to making the benefits of space technologies available to everyone, everywhere.

According to a report by the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) and the Norwegian GRID-Arendal organization climate change and land-use change may increase wildfire intensity and frequency globally to unmanageable levels this century. The experts forecast a global increase of extreme fires up to 14% by 2030, 30% by 2050, and 50% by the end of the century. It is hardly unexpected, given how destructive wildfires have become in recent years.

On Sunday, 27 February, China launched a Long March-4C rocket, carrying a new land observation satellite into space. 

The National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) (U.S. Department of Commerce) successfully launched its newest weather satellite GOES-T on 1 March 2022.  

NOAA’s GOES-T is the third satellite in the Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellites (GOES) – R Series, a Western Hemisphere’s weather observing and environmental monitoring system. 

The deadline for the Call for Good Practices on Early Warning Systems with Focus on Multi-Hazards has been extended and is still open until 07 March 2022. Further information can be found here.

NASA is launching a prototype instrument that could make monitoring volcanic activity and air quality easier. The “Nanosat Atmospheric Chemistry Hyperspectral Observation System,” or NACHOS, will use a compact hyperspectral imager to locate sources of trace gases in areas as small as 0.4 square kilometers.

On the Iberian Peninsula Portal and Spain are facing a severe drought, that started in November 2021 and worsened in the following months. Officials in Portugal were forced to limit the use of hydroelectric dams for power production and irrigation, as some reservoirs started reaching significant lows.

On 26 January, China launched a Long March-4C carrier rocket, placing the L-SAR 01A satellite in space. Equipped with L-band synthetic aperture radar (SAR), the satellite can be used for monitoring the geological environment, especially for landslide and earthquake monitoring.