Satellites are now watching every river, farm and forest. The data is mostly free
Earth observation used to belong to governments. Open archives have handed it to anyone with a laptop.
Europe's Earth-observation programme releases imagery of the whole planet every few days under an open licence. The American archives go back decades. (European Space Agency)
A district engineer can now see last week's landslide, a farmer this season's crop stress, a journalist the extent of a flood, without asking anyone's permission.
What it means for the mountains
For glacier lakes and landslide-prone slopes the archives are the only continuous record there is, and climate monitoring programmes rely on them. (NASA)
References
“Earth observation missions.” European Space Agency, 2025, www.esa.int/Applications/Observing_the_Earth. Accessed 19 May 2026.
“Global Climate Change: Vital Signs of the Planet.” NASA, 2025, climate.nasa.gov. Accessed 19 May 2026.
Cite this story
Dispatch Report (2026) ‘Satellites are now watching every river, farm and forest. The data is mostly free’, 19 May. Available at: https://thedispatchreport.com/article/satellites-are-now-watching-every-river-farm-and-forest-the-data-is-mostly-free (Accessed: 5 October 2026).
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