Convinced that climate change is just one aspect of the global phenomenon, a Chinese scientist proposed that China must put up a series of satellites that can closely monitor global changes on Earth.
Guo Huadong, dean of the Institute of Remote Sensing and Digital Earth with the Chinese Academy of Sciences, said at a symposium in Beijing that global changes can be monitored using six satellites and an observation technology on the moon.
According to Guo, global changes are planetary-scale changes that occur on lands and oceans, the atmosphere, the polar regions and human society.
Study on global change is a new area in science that began when scientists realized that climate change is only a part of a larger phenomenon that changes the Earth.
"The proposal mainly takes into account important problems in global change research, such as the carbon cycle, water cycle and energy cycle," Guo said.
Guo explained that the satellites would also focus on the impact of human activities, light pollution, the source of carbon in forests, the volume and movement of glacier, global climate and ocean environment changes.
Meanwhile, China has already built a network of satellites for Earth observation in line with its space exploration programs. It plans to add more that will make use of drones, satellites and GPS systems.
To date, there are over 200 Earth observation satellites launched worldwide. Out of this number, 25 are global-change scientific satellites, and the fleet include 13 that are in orbit.
Guo estimates that there will be 30 global-change scientific satellites in the next one and a half decade.