Geography
Document Type
Article
Abstract
Observing the Earth with satellites offers clear advantages when it comes to tracking the health of the planet—consistent measurements that can be translated into environmentally relevant estimates, such as carbon, crop productivity, or land use. The resulting information covers large regions, irrespective of administrative boundaries. These measurements also drastically reduce costs compared with on-the-ground data collection efforts. Earth observation (EO) data thereby efficiently deliver timely insights that can directly inform sustainability debates, including with regard to United Nations (UN) Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). At the heart of these efforts are open data initiatives linked to the public release of medium- to high-resolution EO image archives, such as Landsat (from the US Geological Survey) or Copernicus data (from the European Space Agency [ESA]). A growing body of scientific literature attests to the important role of EO data in providing timely and accurate information that’s directly relevant to the SDGs.
Publication Title
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
Publication Date
2-19-2025
Volume
122
Issue
7
ISSN
0027-8424
DOI
10.1073/pnas.2410246122
Keywords
satellite imagery, sustainable development goal
Repository Citation
Rufin, Philippe; Meyfroidt, Patrick; Akinyemi, Felicia O.; Estes, Lyndon; Ibrahim, Esther Shupei; Jain, Meha; Kerner, Hannah; Lisboa, Sá Nogueira; Lobell, David; Nakalembe, Catherine; Persello, Claudio; Picoli, Michelle C.A.; Ribeiro, Natasha; Sitoe, Almeida Alberto; Waha, Katharina; and Wang, Sherrie, "To enhance sustainable development goal research, open up commercial satellite image archives" (2025). Geography. 997.
https://commons.clarku.edu/faculty_geography/997
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 International License.
Copyright Conditions
Rufin, P., Meyfroidt, P., Akinyemi, F. O., Estes, L., Ibrahim, E. S., Jain, M., ... & Wang, S. (2025). To enhance sustainable development goal research, open up commercial satellite image archives. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 122(7), e2410246122.
