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Earth observation is infrastructure and evidence

Part I describes systems and their couplings. It ranks no country or operator and assesses no authority.

7 min read2 figures1 table15 notesNR-XTECH-EOGEO-GLOBAL-2026-BASELINE

Contents
  1. ·Edition home
  2. ·Executive summary
  3. 1Earth observation is infrastructure and evidence
    1. 1.1 The questions this part answers
    2. 1.2 The argument
    3. 1.3 Twenty couplings between five systems
  4. 2Key findings
  5. 3Systems and sectors at baseline
  6. 4Risks and capability
  7. 5Continuity gap in public Earth observation data
  8. 6Readings from the other desks
  9. 7The 2027 agenda
  10. 8Systems in depth
  11. AMethodology
  12. BData appendix
  13. CReferences and record
  14. ·Complete edition, for print

1.1The questions this part answers

Key questions

  • Where is Earth observation risk concentrated?
  • Which couplings carry Earth observation shocks into other systems?
  • Which Earth observation capabilities hold under compound stress?
  • What must 2027 evidence measure first?

In this part

  • Narrative
  • Headline finding
  • Lead figure
  • Five footprint and governance chapters
  • Twelve-domain reading
  • Sector screens
  • Dependency matrix
  • Risk objects
  • Capability ladder
  • Scenario
  • Three lenses
  • Portfolio

1.2The argument

Earth observation is usually discussed as imagery. The 2026 evidence reads it as two things at once: a physical infrastructure of satellites, ground stations, archives and navigation signals, and the evidence base for forests, water, crops, cities and climate2515.

The public base is strong. Landsat 9 and Landsat 8 give 8-day coverage of the land, and Landsat data have been free since 200823. Sentinel-2 states a 5-day revisit6. NISAR launched in July 2025 under free and open terms5. Copernicus services are free and openly accessible7.

The evidence base is used. A University of Maryland team reported 6.7 million hectares of tropical primary forest lost in 2024, with fire the leading cause12. GCOS lists 55 essential climate variables, and several depend on observation from space13.

The infrastructure is the least measured part. Landsat 10 is a 2031 target4. Funding passed by Congress was above the request24. Navigation signal loss rose sharply23. Orbits hold about 40,000 tracked objects15. Commercial fleet counts differ by source2021.

Figure 1.1How many spectral bands do the main land-imaging missions carry? Bands

The planned Landsat 10 carries more than twice the bands of Landsat 8 and 9, with some aligned to Sentinel-2. Band count is one design feature, not a measure of value, and the mission is pre-launch46.

ItemBar, scaled to the largest valueValue
Landsat 8 and 911
Sentinel-213
Landsat 10, planned for 203126

Source: as cited in the note to this figure. Year 2026.

Figure ID FIG-XTECH-EOGEO-GLOBAL-2026-BASELINE-01-003

11bands

Landsat 8 and 94

13bands

Sentinel-26

26bands

Landsat 10, planned4

2.4times

Landsat 10 against Landsat 8 and 9, method (2)

1.3Twenty couplings between five systems

The Earth observation-centred matrix types the twenty couplings between the five core systems, read for their Earth observation content. Strengths are Nexus estimates (ESTIMATED) from the cited evidence and analogue events; they set the graph that 2027 evidence will test.

Figure 1.2Couplings between the five systems

Each line is one coupling from one system to another, drawn by the strength the edition assigns. Strengths are Nexus estimates from the cited evidence and analogue events.

  • Strong
  • Moderate
  • Weak

Source: this edition’s coupling matrix (Table 1.1); status Estimated.

Table 1.1Coupling matrix: from the row system to the column system
From, toWATENEFOOHLTBIO
WAT Water·WEAK
no documented link		WEAK
crop water monitoring, not bound		WEAK
no documented link		WEAK
surface water mapping, not bound
ENE EnergyWEAK
ground-segment cooling, not bound		·WEAK
no documented link		WEAK
no documented link		WEAK
no documented link
FOO FoodWEAK
no documented link		WEAK
no documented link		·WEAK
no documented link		WEAK
land use mapping, not bound
HLT HealthWEAK
no documented link		WEAK
no documented link		WEAK
no documented link		·WEAK
no documented link
BIO BiodiversityWEAK
no documented link		WEAK
no documented link		WEAK
no documented link		WEAK
no documented link		·
Strength: strong, moderate or weak; a Nexus estimate (status Estimated) from cited evidence and analogue events. The scale is defined in Annex A.

Transmission paths

  1. 01

    GOV → INF → DAT

    Funding and policy decisions set which public missions fly and which data stay free.

    Reported NASA appropriations and Landsat 10 plan424

  2. 02

    INF → CLI

    A lapse in a land or sea-level record would leave a gap in climate series.

    Inferred GCOS variables and Sentinel-6913

  3. 03

    TRD → INF

    Navigation signal loss disrupts timing and location for users of observation data.

    Reported IATA signal loss events23

  4. 04

    INF → INF

    Crowded orbits raise collision and debris risk for satellites.

    Reported ESA object counts15

  5. 05

    FIN → INF

    Commercial revenue and public spend fund new satellites.

    Inferred vendor results and appropriations2426

Notes

Numbers are the edition’s reference numbers, so a note reads the same in every chapter. The full list, with every source and its licence, is in Annex C. Annex C, references

  1. 2USGS (ed.), Landsat 9 (mission page; launched 27 September 2021; 705 km sun-synchronous orbit; 16-day repeat cycle with an 8-day offset from Landsat 8; data at no charge). United States Geological Survey, Reston. Observation year 2021. Accessed 2026-11-03.back
  2. 5NASA (ed.), NISAR mission overview (launched 30 July 2025 from India; 12-day coverage; average revisit about 6 days; 3 to 10 m; free and open data). National Aeronautics and Space Administration, Washington. Observation year 2025. Accessed 2026-11-03.back
  3. 15ESA (ed.), ESA Space Environment Report 2025 (web page of 1 April 2025; about 40,000 tracked objects; about 11,000 active payloads; estimated 1.2 million debris objects larger than 1 cm; data to end 2024). European Space Agency, Paris. Observation year 2024. Accessed 2026-11-03.back
  4. 3USGS (ed.), Landsat Data Access (products free to download since 2008; Collection 2 available from commercial cloud with catalogue metadata). United States Geological Survey, Reston. Observation year 2026. Accessed 2026-11-03.back
  5. 6ESA (ed.), Sentinel-2 (mission page; 2A 23 June 2015, 2B 7 March 2017, 2C 5 September 2024; 13 bands; 10 m; 290 km swath; 5-day revisit). European Space Agency, Paris. Observation year 2024. Accessed 2026-11-03.back
  6. 7European Commission (ed.), About Copernicus (Earth observation component of the EU space programme; six services; free and openly accessible; archived site). European Commission, Brussels. Observation year 2026. Accessed 2026-11-03.back
  7. 12WRI (ed.), Global Forest Loss Shatters Records in 2024, Fueled by Massive Fires (release of 21 May 2025; 6.7 million hectares of tropical primary forest lost; nearly 50% from fire; Brazil 42%; data from the University of Maryland GLAD Lab at about 30 m). World Resources Institute, Washington. Observation year 2024. Accessed 2026-11-03.back
  8. 13GCOS (ed.), Essential Climate Variables (list of 55 variables: 16 atmosphere, 20 land, 19 ocean; last updated 20 December 2024). World Meteorological Organization, Geneva. Observation year 2024. Accessed 2026-11-03.back
  9. 4USGS (ed.), Landsat 10 (mission page; 26 spectral bands; 18-day revisit; 10 to 20 m and 60 m resolution; launch target 2031; draft request for proposal for the spacecraft on 18 May 2026). United States Geological Survey, Reston. Observation year 2026. Accessed 2026-11-03.back
  10. 24Planetary Society (ed.), You just saved NASA budget (analysis of H.R. 6938; Earth Science USD 2,153.0 million against USD 1,033.2 million requested; NASA Science USD 7.25 billion; House 8 January 2026, Senate 15 January 2026; signature awaited on the page). The Planetary Society, Pasadena. Observation year 2026. Accessed 2026-11-03.back
  11. 23EASA (ed.), EASA and IATA publish comprehensive plan to mitigate GNSS interference (release of 18 June 2025; four workstreams; workshop of over 120 experts in May 2025; IATA reports 220% rise in GPS signal loss events from 2021 to 2024). European Union Aviation Safety Agency, Cologne. Observation year 2025. Accessed 2026-11-03.back
  12. 20ESA (ed.), ICEYE, Earth Online third party mission page (82 X-band SAR satellites launched for the ICEYE constellation as of 2026; constellation mean revisit at the equator 20 hours; access by accepted project proposal). European Space Agency, Frascati. Observation year 2026. Accessed 2026-11-03.back
  13. 21ICEYE (ed.), ICEYE launches four new satellites aboard Transporter-17 (release; launch 7 July 2026; 76 satellites launched in total; up to 16 cm resolution claimed; vendor announcement, weak evidence). ICEYE, Espoo. Observation year 2026. Accessed 2026-11-03.back
  14. 9ESA (ed.), Sentinel-6 (mission page; Sentinel-6B launched 17 November 2025; reference altimetry mission to 2030 at least; 95% of the ocean measured). European Space Agency, Paris. Observation year 2025. Accessed 2026-11-03.back
  15. 26UNVERIFIED, not opened: Planet Labs PBC (ed.), fourth quarter and fiscal year 2026 results (revenue USD 307.7 million, up 26%; 40 satellites launched in the fiscal year), taken from search-result summaries; the release page returned an access error. Planet Labs, San Francisco. Observation year 2026. Accessed 2026-11-03.back

Cite this chapter

Valadbaygi, S. (Ed.). (2026). Chapter 1: Earth observation is infrastructure and evidence. In Exponential Technology Report 2026: Earth Observation and Geospatial Intelligence (Baseline Edition 2026, Report No. NR-XTECH-EOGEO-GLOBAL-2026-BASELINE) [Draft under review]. The Global Centre for Risk and Innovation (GCRI).

Every citation form of the whole report, BibTeX and RIS included, is on the edition home. Cite this report

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