Polytechnique insights A REVIEW BY INSTITUT POLYTECHNIQUE DE PARIS
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Home / Dossiers / Space / Climate, war, pollution: how satellites are documenting our greatest challenges
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Climate, war, pollution: how satellites are documenting our greatest challenges

6 episodes
  • 1
    Satellite images reveal the extent of methane leaks across the world
  • 2
    IRIS2: everything you need to know about this new European constellation
  • 3
    The impact of the war in Ukraine on wheat production
  • 4
    The extent of glacier melt measured from space
  • 5
    How satellites are redefining earthquake science
  • 6
    Measuring war damage cost-effectively using radar satellites
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Épisode 1/6

Satellite images reveal the extent of methane leaks across the world
On March 19th, 2025
4 min reading time
Marielle Saunois
Marielle Saunois
Lecturer and Researcher at Université Versailles Saint Quentin and Member of Climate and Environmental Sciences Laboratory

Key takeaways

  • Some countries in the world are home to “super-emitters”, i.e. industrial sites that release large amounts of methane.
  • Satellite data now makes it possible to measure methane leaks independently, without relying on industry estimates.
  • In 2022, scientists revealed significant methane emissions using TROPOMI data; two-thirds of the events are related to oil and gas production.
  • In 2018, a team pointed out that emissions from the oil and gas sector in the United States exceeded those estimated by the Environmental Protection Agency by 60%.
  • However, the effectiveness of satellites can be hampered, for example, by limited spatial resolution or atmospheric interference.
2_iris2
Épisode 2/6

IRIS2: everything you need to know about this new European constellation
On March 11th, 2025
5 min reading time
Jean-Pierre Diris
Jean-Pierre Diris
Interministerial Coordinator for France on IRIS² and GOVSATCOM

Key takeaways

  • Europe will be deploying the IRIS2 constellation of telecoms satellites in 2030 to avoid relying on non-European players for its strategic or governmental needs.
  • IRIS2 will comprise 264 satellites in low orbit and 18 satellites in medium orbit, so it is not a mega-constellation like Starlink or Kuiper.
  • The technological challenges facing the project include securing it and developing innovative electronic miniaturisation for Europe.
  • While the strategy put in place by IRIS2 aims to limit the proliferation of debris in Earth orbit, players like Starlink are raising concerns in this area.
  • Faced with the United States' desire to exert an economic stranglehold on Europe, the latter needs autonomy, which means developing its own space tools.
4_guerreBle
Épisode 3/6

The impact of the war in Ukraine on wheat production
On March 26th, 2025
3 min reading time
Ahmad Al Bitar
Ahmad Al Bitar
CNRS Research Engineer at Centre d'Études Spatiales de la Biosphère
anonyme
Veronika Antonenko
Research Engineer at Centre d'Études Spatiales de la Biosphère

Key takeaways

  • The war in Ukraine has had an impact on wheat yields, a fact demonstrated by satellite data in two regions: Poltava and Kherson.
  • In 2022, wheat yields fell by 20% in the Kherson region (which was invaded by the Russian army) compared to previous years, while they remained stable in Poltava (which was far from the front).
  • Two main factors explaining the impact of the Russian army on yields are limited access to plots of land and the consequences of the war on farmers.
  • This data comes from the Sentinel-2 satellites, launched as part of the European Earth observation and monitoring program, Copernicus.
  • The weather does not seem to be a factor in explaining the fall in wheat crop yields.
huge alpine glacier melts, giving rise to a lake of clear water
Épisode 4/6

The extent of glacier melt measured from space
On September 24th, 2025
4 min reading time
R32_3505
Étienne Berthier
Glaciologist at CNRS
Fabien Maussion
Fabien Maussion
Associate Professor at Bristol Glaciology Centre at University of Bristol

Key takeaways

  • Global warming is causing glaciers and permafrost to melt, reducing the stability of mountainsides and causing accidents.
  • In regions with small glaciers, such as the Alps and Pyrenees, many of them will disappear before the end of the century.
  • Satellites now provide mapping and monitoring of changes in nearly 220,000 existing glaciers.
  • In 2021, satellite observations of glaciers showed a loss of 267 billion tonnes per year between 2000 and 2019.
  • Twice as much glacier mass could be lost if the temperature rises by 2.7°C by the end of the century.
Épisode 5/6

How satellites are redefining earthquake science
On January 6th, 2026
4 min reading time
Claire Huber_VF
Claire Huber
Engineer and Project Manager in Remote Sensing and GIS (Geographic Information System) at SERTIT
Cé​cile Lasserre_VF
Cécile Lasserre
CNRS Research Director at the LGLTPE laboratory

Key takeaways

  • Since the 2000s, satellite instruments have been capable of recording images with a spatial resolution of less than one metre.
  • Beyond their purely scientific value, satellites are invaluable for studying earthquakes and useful for disaster relief.
  • Two categories of satellites are used to study earthquakes: Earth observation satellites and positioning satellites, such as GPS.
  • Thanks to the latter, slow earthquakes – lasting from a few days to months – have been discovered in subduction zones.
wildfire smoke over rural town
Épisode 6/6

Measuring war damage cost-effectively using radar satellites
On October 21st, 2026
4 min reading time
Daniel Racek_VF
Daniel Racek
Head of the Department for Data Science in Crisis and Conflict Research at University of the Bundeswehr Munich

Key takeaways

  • A new method provides near-real-time assessments of the extent of damage to buildings in war zones without the need for costly commercial satellite imagery.
  • It is based on an algorithm that analyses radar images to identify destroyed buildings in conflict zones over 12-day periods.
  • When applied to the 2020 Beirut explosion, this algorithm achieved an accuracy rate of 86 % and correctly identified a total of 361 destroyed buildings.
  • Large-scale automated detection of damage caused by wars and conflicts makes it possible to study issues that were previously difficult, if not impossible, to address.

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