Sustainability Atlas
Space & Earth Observation·15 min read··...

Deep dive: Earth observation satellites & climate analytics — the fastest-moving subsegments to watch

What's working, what isn't, and what's next — with the trade-offs made explicit. Focus on unit economics, adoption blockers, and what decision-makers should watch next.

The global Earth observation satellite market reached $5.8 billion in 2024 and is projected to exceed $11.2 billion by 2030, representing a compound annual growth rate of 11.5% (Euroconsult, 2024). More striking still, satellite-derived climate analytics now underpin an estimated $2.4 trillion in financial decisions annually—from agricultural commodity trading to sovereign climate risk assessments. With over 1,200 active Earth observation satellites in orbit by late 2025, compared to fewer than 400 a decade earlier, the capacity to monitor environmental change has fundamentally transformed. For sustainability leaders in the Asia-Pacific region, where climate vulnerability intersects with rapid economic growth, these developments present both strategic opportunities and urgent imperatives.

Why It Matters

Earth observation satellites provide the only practical means of monitoring climate-relevant phenomena at planetary scale with consistent methodology. Ground-based monitoring networks, while essential for calibration and validation, cannot achieve the spatial coverage or temporal frequency required for comprehensive climate assessment. Satellites now deliver daily global coverage of atmospheric composition, weekly measurements of ice sheet dynamics, and near-real-time detection of methane super-emitters—capabilities that did not exist at operational scale five years ago.

The commercial and regulatory implications are substantial. The EU's Copernicus programme, the world's largest civil Earth observation initiative, provides free and open data that generated an estimated €6.7 billion in downstream economic value in 2024 (European Commission, 2024). Meanwhile, carbon accounting regulations including the CSRD and California's SB 253 increasingly reference satellite-based verification as the emerging standard for emissions monitoring, particularly for fugitive methane emissions that ground-based sensors often miss.

For the Asia-Pacific region specifically, satellite-based climate analytics address critical monitoring gaps. Indonesia's forest fire emissions, India's agricultural methane, and China's industrial pollution—all representing significant shares of regional and global emissions—are now trackable with satellite precision that enables attribution to specific facilities or land parcels. This granularity transforms climate accountability from aggregate national inventories to verifiable point-source monitoring.

The investment thesis has shifted accordingly. In 2024, private investment in Earth observation startups exceeded $2.1 billion globally, with climate-focused analytics companies capturing the largest share of growth capital. Public investment has accelerated in parallel: NASA's Earth System Observatory, launching between 2027-2030, represents a $4.2 billion commitment to next-generation climate monitoring, while the European Space Agency's Copernicus expansion adds €5.1 billion through 2034.

Key Concepts

Multispectral and Hyperspectral Imaging: Earth observation satellites capture electromagnetic radiation across multiple wavelength bands. Multispectral sensors (typically 4-12 bands) enable basic land cover classification and vegetation health assessment. Hyperspectral sensors (hundreds of narrow bands) allow identification of specific materials and chemical compounds. The EMIT instrument aboard the International Space Station, for example, uses hyperspectral imaging to map mineral dust sources and detect methane plumes with unprecedented specificity.

Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR): Unlike optical sensors that require sunlight and clear skies, SAR satellites emit their own microwave pulses and measure returns. This enables all-weather, day-night imaging critical for regions with persistent cloud cover—much of tropical Asia-Pacific. SAR can detect ground subsidence at millimeter precision, measure soil moisture, and penetrate forest canopy to assess biomass. The Sentinel-1 constellation provides free global SAR coverage every six days.

Interferometric SAR (InSAR): By comparing SAR images from different times or positions, InSAR measures surface deformation with sub-centimeter accuracy. Applications include monitoring glacier flow, detecting land subsidence from groundwater extraction, and tracking volcanic activity. For climate applications, InSAR enables precise measurement of permafrost thaw and coastal land loss.

Radiative Transfer Modeling: Converting satellite-measured radiances to physical quantities (temperature, gas concentrations, aerosol properties) requires sophisticated atmospheric models. These models simulate how radiation interacts with the atmosphere and surface, enabling retrieval algorithms to infer environmental parameters from observed signals. Model accuracy limits retrieval precision, making radiative transfer a critical enabler and constraint of satellite climate analytics.

Measurement, Reporting, and Verification (MRV): The framework for quantifying, documenting, and independently confirming emissions and removals. Satellite-based MRV is increasingly accepted by carbon markets and regulators as a complement or alternative to ground-based measurement. The key advantage is independent, consistent monitoring that cannot be manipulated by reporting entities.

What's Working and What Isn't

What's Working

Commercial Methane Detection at Scale: The past two years have demonstrated that satellite-based methane monitoring can identify super-emitters, attribute emissions to specific facilities, and drive rapid remediation. GHGSat, with a constellation of 12 satellites by 2025, has detected thousands of methane plumes from oil and gas infrastructure, landfills, and coal mines globally. Their data has triggered regulatory enforcement actions and voluntary operator remediation worth millions of tonnes of CO2-equivalent avoided. The International Energy Agency now incorporates satellite methane data into its global methane tracker, lending institutional credibility to commercial observations.

Open Data Ecosystems Enabling Innovation: The Copernicus programme's free and open data policy has catalyzed a thriving downstream analytics industry. Companies like Kayrros, Descartes Labs, and Planet Labs build value-added products atop freely available Sentinel data, creating economic activity that dwarfs the cost of satellite operations. This model—public infrastructure enabling private innovation—has proven more effective than proprietary data silos for accelerating climate applications.

Machine Learning Enhancing Analysis Throughput: The volume of Earth observation data (petabytes annually from Sentinel alone) exceeds human analytical capacity by orders of magnitude. Machine learning models now enable automated detection of deforestation, fire progression, and infrastructure changes at near-real-time latency. Microsoft's AI for Good programme, partnering with the Global Methane Hub, has deployed models that process methane observations within hours of satellite overpass—speed that enables rapid response to emission events.

Integration with Carbon Markets: Satellite-based monitoring is becoming embedded in carbon credit verification frameworks. The Integrity Council for the Voluntary Carbon Market (ICVCM) has endorsed satellite MRV as meeting its Core Carbon Principles for certain project types. Pachama, NCX, and other forest carbon platforms now combine satellite imagery with machine learning to estimate carbon stocks and detect deforestation, providing continuous monitoring that supplements periodic ground surveys.

What Isn't Working

Persistent Gaps in Developing Country Data Access: While Copernicus and Landsat data are nominally free, the bandwidth, storage, and computational resources required to access and process satellite data remain prohibitive for many developing country institutions. Cloud platforms like Google Earth Engine have democratized access for researchers, but operational deployment in national agencies often stalls on infrastructure constraints. The Asia-Pacific region, despite hosting the majority of climate-vulnerable populations, has disproportionately limited capacity to exploit satellite data for decision-making.

Attribution Uncertainty for Diffuse Emissions: Satellites excel at detecting point-source emissions from facilities but struggle with diffuse sources—enteric fermentation from dispersed livestock, soil emissions from extensive agriculture, or wetland methane from remote regions. These sources represent the majority of emissions in sectors like agriculture but remain difficult to attribute with the spatial precision that point-source detection achieves. The mismatch between detection capability and emission source characteristics limits MRV applicability.

Temporal Resolution Limitations: Most climate-relevant satellites revisit the same location every few days to weeks. For phenomena like methane leaks (which may be intermittent), wildfire ignition (which propagates in hours), or flood events (which evolve in days), this temporal spacing can miss critical dynamics. Geostationary satellites provide continuous coverage but at coarse spatial resolution insufficient for facility-level monitoring. Reconciling spatial and temporal requirements remains an engineering trade-off without satisfactory resolution for many applications.

Calibration and Validation Deficits: Satellite retrievals require ground-truth validation to quantify accuracy and uncertainty. For many climate variables—soil carbon, below-ground biomass, permafrost carbon stocks—validation networks are sparse or nonexistent in critical regions. Published satellite accuracies often derive from well-instrumented regions (North America, Europe) that may not represent performance in data-sparse areas. Users who assume uniform global accuracy risk decisions based on unvalidated estimates.

Sector-Specific KPI Benchmarks

KPIGoodAverageNeeds Improvement
Methane detection sensitivity<50 kg/hr100-500 kg/hr>1000 kg/hr
Spatial resolution (optical)<3 m10-30 m>100 m
Revisit frequencyDaily5-10 days>16 days
Data latency (detection to alert)<24 hours1-7 days>14 days
Validation coverage (% land area with ground truth)>30%10-30%<10%
CO2 flux uncertainty (regional annual)<±10%±10-30%>±30%

Key Players

Established Leaders

  • Planet Labs — Operates the largest commercial Earth observation constellation (200+ satellites), providing daily global imagery at 3-5 meter resolution. Their Planetary Variables products translate raw imagery into analysis-ready environmental indicators.
  • Maxar Technologies — Delivers highest-resolution commercial optical imagery (30 cm), essential for infrastructure monitoring and damage assessment. Their Geospatial Big Data platform integrates imagery with analytics.
  • Airbus Defence and Space — Operates the Pléiades and SPOT constellations, providing high-resolution optical data. Their Earth observation division generated €1.2 billion in 2024 revenue.
  • European Space Agency (Copernicus) — The Sentinel constellation provides the backbone of free, open global Earth observation data. Copernicus Climate Change Service delivers authoritative climate reanalysis datasets.

Emerging Startups

  • GHGSat — Montreal-based leader in commercial methane detection, with 12 satellites providing facility-level monitoring. Has detected over 4,000 methane plumes since 2016.
  • Pixxel — Indian hyperspectral imaging company deploying 6 satellites by 2025, enabling mineral and pollution mapping with 5-meter resolution across 300+ spectral bands.
  • Muon Space — US startup developing end-to-end climate monitoring constellation, integrating satellite design with downstream analytics platform.
  • Scepter — Australian company focused on maritime emissions monitoring, using satellite data to verify shipping fuel consumption and emissions.
  • Hydrosat — Specializes in thermal infrared imagery for water stress and evapotranspiration monitoring, critical for agricultural climate adaptation.

Key Investors & Funders

  • Google Ventures — Backed Planet Labs; Google Earth Engine provides dominant cloud platform for satellite data analysis.
  • DCVC (Data Collective) — Climate-focused venture fund investing in Muon Space and other Earth observation analytics startups.
  • European Space Agency ARTES Programme — Funds commercial Earth observation applications development with €50M+ annually.
  • NASA Earth Science Division — $2.2 billion annual budget supporting satellite missions and research. Earth System Observatory investments exceed $4.2 billion.
  • World Bank Global Environment Facility — Funds satellite-based MRV capacity building in developing countries through programs like the Coalition for Rainforest Nations.

Examples

  1. Carbon Mapper Partnership: Carbon Mapper, a nonprofit partnership including NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, the State of California, and Planet Labs, launched its first satellites in 2024 to detect point-source methane and CO2 emissions globally. Their open-data model provides free public access to emission detections, enabling advocacy organizations, regulators, and journalists to identify and publicize super-emitters. In their first year of operations, they detected 1,200+ methane plumes across 45 countries, with over 60% of detected emissions coming from the oil and gas sector. Their data contributed to enforcement actions by the US EPA and European regulators, demonstrating how satellite transparency can drive emissions reduction even without direct regulatory authority.

  2. Indonesia's Forest Monitoring System (SIMONTANA): Indonesia's Ministry of Environment and Forestry operates a satellite-based forest monitoring system that integrates Sentinel, Landsat, and JAXA ALOS-2 data to detect deforestation in near-real-time. The system issues weekly alerts that enable forest rangers to respond to illegal clearing within days of detection—compared to months or years under previous aerial survey approaches. Since 2019, the system has supported a 75% reduction in primary forest loss, contributing to Indonesia's receipt of $103.8 million in results-based payments from the Green Climate Fund and Norway. The success demonstrates how satellite monitoring can enable results-based climate finance at national scale, providing the verification infrastructure that donors require for performance-based payments.

  3. Kayrros Methane Watch: French analytics company Kayrros processes data from ESA's Sentinel-5P and other satellites to produce a global methane monitoring service used by governments, financial institutions, and energy companies. Their Climate Trace partnership with former US Vice President Al Gore has publicized major emission sources, including identification of methane super-emitters that contribute disproportionately to climate forcing. Major institutional investors, including Climate Action 100+ members with $68 trillion in assets under management, use Kayrros data to assess portfolio company emissions and engage on mitigation. The financial sector integration demonstrates how satellite data can influence capital allocation decisions at scale, creating economic incentives for emissions reduction beyond regulatory requirements.

Action Checklist

  • Assess satellite data relevance: Identify which climate-relevant phenomena in your operations or supply chain can be monitored via satellite (methane emissions, deforestation, water stress, land use change) and prioritize high-impact applications.

  • Evaluate data access pathways: Determine whether free sources (Copernicus, Landsat) meet your needs or whether commercial providers offer required resolution, frequency, or processing. Cloud platforms (Google Earth Engine, Microsoft Planetary Computer) can lower technical barriers.

  • Build or acquire analytical capacity: Raw satellite data requires specialized processing to generate actionable insights. Assess whether to build internal capabilities, contract with analytics providers, or adopt pre-processed products tailored to your sector.

  • Integrate satellite data into MRV frameworks: For organizations with climate commitments or regulatory obligations, incorporate satellite-based verification as a complement to existing monitoring. Document methodology to ensure auditability.

  • Engage with standardization efforts: Participate in emerging standards for satellite-based MRV through bodies like ISO, GHG Protocol, and sector-specific initiatives to ensure your investments align with evolving requirements.

  • Plan for validation requirements: If using satellite data for compliance or carbon credit purposes, budget for ground-truth validation activities that may be required by regulators or credit buyers.

FAQ

Q: How accurate are satellite-based emissions estimates compared to ground measurements? A: Accuracy varies significantly by emission type and measurement approach. For point-source methane detection, leading satellites achieve quantification accuracy of ±15-30% for individual plumes, with detection thresholds of 50-500 kg/hr depending on the instrument. For regional or national flux estimates, satellite-derived values typically agree with inventory estimates within ±20-40% for well-characterized regions, though uncertainties increase in data-sparse areas. The key advantage of satellites is complete spatial coverage and independent verification, compensating for precision limitations with comprehensive monitoring that ground networks cannot achieve.

Q: What regulatory frameworks accept satellite-based MRV? A: Regulatory acceptance is evolving rapidly. The EU's Methane Regulation (2024) explicitly references satellite detection for identifying super-emitters requiring remediation. California's SB 253 and AB 1305 reference third-party verification methods that encompass satellite-based approaches. The ICVCM Core Carbon Principles accept satellite MRV for certain project types, particularly avoided deforestation. Article 6 of the Paris Agreement does not prescribe specific MRV methods, creating flexibility for satellite-based approaches in bilateral carbon trading. However, many jurisdictions still require supplemental ground measurement, and regulatory frameworks continue to develop as satellite capabilities mature.

Q: What are the costs of accessing satellite-based climate analytics? A: Costs range from free to millions annually depending on requirements. Raw data from Copernicus and Landsat is freely available, though processing requires technical capacity. Cloud-based analysis platforms (Google Earth Engine, Microsoft Planetary Computer) provide free access for research and limited commercial use. Commercial high-resolution imagery costs $5-50 per square kilometer depending on resolution and licensing terms. Analytics platforms and methane monitoring services typically charge $50,000-500,000 annually for enterprise subscriptions, with pricing based on geographic scope and feature requirements. Custom analysis projects may cost $100,000-1,000,000+ depending on complexity.

Q: How can organizations in the Asia-Pacific region build satellite analytics capacity? A: Several pathways exist for regional capacity building. The Asia-Pacific Regional Space Agency Forum (APRSAF) coordinates training and technology transfer. UN-affiliated programs including UNOSAT and the Regional Centre for Space Science and Technology Education (affiliated with the UN in India) offer training courses. Commercial providers including Planet and GHGSat have established regional partnerships. Cloud platforms like Google Earth Engine lower infrastructure barriers by providing browser-based access to processed data. Organizations should assess whether to build internal expertise or partner with regional consultancies that have established analytical capabilities.

Q: What developments should decision-makers monitor over the next 2-3 years? A: Key developments to watch include: (1) NASA's Earth System Observatory launches (2027-2030) will dramatically improve CO2 and methane monitoring precision; (2) the EU Methane Regulation implementation will establish satellite-based detection as regulatory standard; (3) commercial constellations from GHGSat, Carbon Mapper, and MethaneSAT will increase temporal coverage for methane monitoring; (4) hyperspectral missions from ESA (CHIME) and commercial providers will enable new applications in soil health and mineral mapping; (5) integration of satellite MRV into Article 6 carbon market mechanisms will establish standards for climate finance applications. Organizations that develop familiarity with satellite capabilities now will be better positioned to capitalize on these developments.

Sources

Topics

earthobservationbenchmark KPIsspace lawtransition plancomplianceGNSS

Related Articles