06.23: Hotsat-1

Climate News 06.2023: Hotsat-1

This month I’ve been reading about how innovative satellite technologies are being used as important tools for scientists leaders in monitoring and addressing climate change.

Recently, the British technology company, SatVu, built a satellite that can measure the heat radiating off buildings and determine whether or not they are energy efficient. This incredible satellite is named Hotsat-1 and was launched with a SpaceX rocket from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California in June this year.

The satellite can send information that it collects back to Earth in near real time. As well as seeing heat loss from buildings the satellite can also spot faults in solar farms. SatVu plans to launch 7 more similar satellites into orbit and hopefully will receive its first images from Hotsat-1 this month and the satellite should be in commercial operation in October. According to the World Green Building Council “buildings are currently responsible for 39% of global energy related carbon emissions: 28% from operational emissions, from energy needed to heat, cool and power them, and the remaining 11% from materials and construction.” Clearly, this is an important area to address and Hotsat-1 and its later generations of siblings can play a role in helping communities retrofit inefficient buildings. 

Hotsat-1 will be useful to see parts of countries, particularly the UK at first, and determine whether or not they are energy efficient. Eventually, SatVu will be able to look at every building in the world. It will help leaders at every level address energy inefficiencies in buildings and make new plans to reduce climate change.

Similar missions have been conducted by NASA but none of them quite like this. NASA has several programs using satellites to monitor Earth’s climate and changes to the climate. They are collecting a vast amount of important information and offering scientists and the public statistics about Earth’s vital signs as well as monitoring weather and tracking water cycles and ice melt. We are in the midst of an exciting era of space exploration, and these satellite technologies are at the intersection of space science and climate action.