Sentinels – Exploring Nature from Space (Nature, 1x50 min, 4K)
Television
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Seeing Nature from Space.
From our eyes, positioned barely two metres from the ground, it’s hard to really appreciate how our planet works, or how some creatures became truly global long before air travel shrank our world. But the Earth is ringed by satellites that send back the big picture from space, while scientists developed new technology, including such tiny GPS tags, they can even track individual insects over long distances. Together, these techniques reveal how our planet works over the course of a year and how animals make use of seasonal global patterns. In the last few years, these sentinels in space have revealed totally unsuspected stories from the natural world.
As the seasons turn, we can watch changes in plant productivity with instruments such as SeaWiFS and MODIS. We can see the changing rainfall patterns, as the Intertropical Convergence Zone moves north and south of the equator, bringing seasonal monsoons and a flush of new growth. We can follow GPS tagged animals as they track these changes.
