Giving Compass' Take:

• Because of high costs, many governments do not provide free access to the data they collect, or could collect, from their satellites. This impedes the progress of science. 

• How can private philanthropy help to increase the data collected and made available to the public? How can policy increase data accessibility to scientists?

• Find out how this state is freeing up data to help accelerate social impact.

Scientists and policymakers need satellite data to understand and address climate change. Yet data from more than half of unclassified Earth-observing satellites is restricted in some way, rather than shared openly.

When governments restrict who can access data, or limit how people can use or redistribute it, that slows the progress of science.

Satellites can collect comprehensive data over the oceans, arctic areas and other sparsely populated zones that are difficult for humans to monitor.

Satellites collect valuable data, but they’re also expensive, typically ranging from US$100 million to nearly $1 billion per mission. Many nations attempt to sell or commercialize data to recoup some of the costs.

In other cases, agency priorities prevent any data access at all. As of 2016, more than 35 nations have been involved in the development or operation of an Earth observation satellite. In many cases, nations with small or emerging space programs, such as Egypt and Indonesia, have chosen to build relatively simple satellites to give their engineers hands-on experience.

Since these programs aim to build capacity and demonstrate new technology, rather than distribute or use data, data systems don’t receive significant funding.

Read the full article on satellites and climate data by Mariel Borowitz at The Conversation.