New Canadian Earth observation strategy doesn’t yet include any new satellites

The Canadian space community has a fresh climate-focused direction on satellite Earth Observations. The Canadian Space Agency (CSA) and its partners announced a new satellite strategy Wednesday (Jan. 20) along with a "Smart Earth" set of government-funded applications meant to address global warming. The announcement, however, does not yet include specific money or timelines tied to a new satellite to replacing aging but still operational satellites with CSA hardware onboard – such as Canada's SciSat-1, which launched in 2003. Incredibly, the mission was only supposed to last two years – and fortunately, remains operational in its twentieth year of operation. It is possible, though, that the intent of mentioning new satellites in the strategy is meant to be a first step to making a hardware-focused announcement in the future – or that some of the entities brought on board through smartEarth may be eventually able to assist. The strategy, called "Resourceful, Resilient, Ready," includes a collaboration between CSA, Environment and Climate Change Canada, and Natural Resources Canada – as well as several private-sector and academic partners. It's very common for Canada to pool its resources across multiple government departments both to provide a larger budget for space projects, and also to enhance collaborations across the different mandates each department focuses on. The RRR strategy includes four objectives, according to the newly published study: Free, open and accessible satellite data through "open data", more "job creation and innovation" programs, and more domestic and international partnerships. Use satellite Earth observations for climate change and other "issues that matter to Canadians", such as environmental and health indicators. Strengthen satellite service delivery, including modernizing ground infrastructure and developing a yet-to-be determined "next generation" of government satellites and services, through procurement and R&D. New satellites are not immediately forthcoming, though. During a media question-and-answer session, CSA president Lisa Campbell pointed to the Radarsat series of satellites and international collaborations (such as CloudSat) as the main source of the satellite delivery for the time being, along with a potential wildfire-focused satellite for the future. Focus on skills development for students, including Earth observation education opportunities, and partnerships with Indigenous and northern communities. A second aspect of the announcement will be an additional $8 million in funding for the existing CSA-led smartEarth initiative. The money will be to support their development of new applications for data collected through satellite or observations," said François-Philippe Champagne, Minister of Innovation, Science and Industry. Also, 21 new Canadian organizations were funded from a January 2021 announcement of opportunity for smartEarth. The newly funded observations will cut across sectors including agriculture, disaster management and environmental protection, and the announcement included quick introductions to three of the funded entities: The Arctic Eider Society that will gather local knowledge through its Canadian Indigenous connections; The artificial intelligence-focused AIRM Consulting that will assist with parsing satellite data; Lux Aerobot, a space robotics company that assists in Earth observations satellite design, manufacturing, operation and data set collection and analysis. Much of the livestreamed announcement included a "fireside chat" discussion during which the representatives from these companies and charities spoke with the government officials about the value of collaborations, of bringing local knowledge to the fight for climate change, and to how they hope to use satellite data for their various projects. Parliamentary Secretary Julie Dabrusin added that today's global warming-focused announcements flow into previous financing announced in the 2021 budget. The two main past announcements she focused on including spending $90 million over 11 years for satellite Earth observation, and $20 million for Canadian company GHGSat for methane measurements. "The high-quality satellite data will help us fight climate change more effectively and will strengthen the delivery of critical services that keep Canadians safe and informed, and it will allow us to capitalize on Canada's world class expertise and gathering space data, which is essential for better decision-making," parliamentary secretary Julie Dabrusin said during the announcement. The satellite sector generates roughly $3.3 billion USD ($4.1 billion CAD) in revenue annually around the world and is expected to more than double to $7.2 billion USD ($9 billion CAD) in the next 10 years, officials said during the announcement. Moreover, satellites provide crucial data for monitoring the pace of global warming, which continues to accelerate and to deliver devastating local issues – such as the wildfires across much of western Canada and the United States in 2021. "Observation provides a wealth of information about our lands, about our forests, and obviously about our country," CSA president Lisa Campbell said during the announcement. "We're lucky to have Canadian organizations that are able to use and leverage this data for us to use on a daily basis. But we need to stay ahead of the curve, like with every evolving technology." A CSA press release pointed to numerous ongoing satellite missions that will also assist with the satellite announcement, including SciSat-1, the Radarsat Constellation Mission that launched in 2019, Radarsat-2 that launched in 2007, and archival data being updated and reprocessed for Radarsat, which is no longer operational. Additionally of use are Canadian instruments, although the ones cited in the announcement are all on old satellites. The cited ones included NASA's 22-year-old Terra satellite – MOPITT or Measurement of Pollution in the Troposphere – and on the 20-year-old Swedish-led Odin atmosphere-studying satellite, which includes OSIRIS (Optical Spectrograph and InfraRed Imaging System).