ENVISAT, the European Space Agency’s environmental monitoring satellite, last week started beaming back striking images of Earth. But the spacecraft may not live up to its promise, say scientists at Britain’s National Physical Laboratory in Teddington, Middlesex. They claim the optical sensors on the craft are not accurate enough to provide definitive data on climate change. NPL is suggesting a new space mission to correct what it sees as Envisat’s shortcomings.
Envisat has a battery of sensors designed to capture data on ocean colour, sea surface temperatures and wave heights, for example. But Nigel Fox, a measurement scientist at NPL,…
