Research on global change scientific satellites

Global change now poses a severe threat to the survival and development of mankind. Large-scale, real-time, highly accurate Earth observation from space has become a key technology used to observe global change. China is one of the most influential countries affecting and being affected by global change, yet it has no scientific satellite for global change research so far. Developing global change scientific satellites not only would meet an important demand of China, but also would be a valuable contribution to the world. By analyzing the mechanisms of space-based observation of variables sensitive to global change, this paper explores the concept of global change scientific satellites, and proposes a series of global change scientific satellites to establish a scientific observation system for global environmental change monitoring from space.