The emerging technological revolution in Earth observations

A technology revolution in Earth observation sensor design is occurring. This revolution in part is associated with the emergence of CubeSat platforms that have forced a de facto standardization on the volume and power into which sensors have to fit. The extent that small sensors can indeed provide similar or replacement capabilities compared to larger and more expensive counterparts has barely been demonstrated and any loss of capability of smaller systems weighed against the gains in costs and new potential capabilities offered by implementing them with a more distributed observing strategy also has not yet been embraced. This paper provides four examples of observations made with prototype miniaturized observing systems, including from CubeSats, that offer a glimpse of this emerging sensor revolution and a hint at future observing system design.

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Author Stephens, G.
Freeman, A.
Richard, E.
Pilewskie, P.
Larkin, P.
Chew, Clara C.
Tanelli, S.
Brown, S.
Posselt, D.
Peral, E.
Publisher UCAR/NCAR - Library
Publication Date 2020-03-01T00:00:00
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Topic Category geoscientificInformation
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Metadata Date 2025-07-11T19:21:17.416998
Metadata Record Identifier edu.ucar.opensky::articles:24941
Metadata Language eng; USA
Suggested Citation Stephens, G., Freeman, A., Richard, E., Pilewskie, P., Larkin, P., Chew, Clara C., Tanelli, S., Brown, S., Posselt, D., Peral, E.. (2020). The emerging technological revolution in Earth observations. UCAR/NCAR - Library. https://n2t.org/ark:/85065/d70z76tp. Accessed 24 August 2025.

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