---
title: "Satellites: a thousand eyes to monitor and act on climate change — Marsanne Studio AI watch"
description: "Earth observation satellites, combined with artificial intelligence, make it possible to detect fires, methane emissions and illegal mining activity."
url: "https://marsanne.studio/en/ai-watch/satellites-a-thousand-eyes-to-monitor-and-act-on-climate-3536fd/"
lang: "en"
---

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Analysis · 26 September 2026

# Satellites: a thousand eyes to monitor and act on climate change

Original title, in Spanish: “Satélites: mil ojos para vigilar y actuar contra el cambio climático”

**Publication**

Cinco Días (Spain)

**Author**

[Nuria Díaz](https://cincodias.elpais.com/autor/nuria-diaz-sacritan/)

**Published on**

26 September 2026 · read in the page structured data

## Summary

The article describes the rise of Earth observation satellites, which have grown from 374 in 2016 to more than 1,000 today according to Pixalytics, with more than 6,500 launches planned by 2035 according to Novaspace. Companies such as Telespazio Ibérica are developing projects to monitor fires (PiroSAR) and methane emissions (CH4 Sentinel), while Xcalibur Smart Mapping works with more than 20 clients, including the public sector, to detect illegal mining in Nigeria or monitor mining sites in Spain for Minera Los Frailes. According to Esther Gil, a director at Xcalibur, artificial intelligence and machine learning have become essential for automating change detection and generating alerts from the millions of images captured every day, without replacing expert judgement.

Summary based on the full text of the article.

[Read the article on Cinco Días →](https://cincodias.elpais.com/extras/entorno/2026-09-26/satelites-mil-ojos-para-vigilar-y-actuar-contra-el-cambio-climatico.html)

## Figures cited

-   374 satellites
    
    Number of Earth observation satellites in 2016
    
    worldwide, 2016
    
    > « Según la consultora Pixalytics, en 2016 había unos 374 aparatos de observación terrestre. »
    
    Source: Pixalytics
    
-   1,000 satellites
    
    Number of Earth observation satellites today
    
    worldwide, 2026
    
    > « Hoy, son más de 1.000, casi el triple. »
    
    Source: Pixalytics
    
-   6,500 launches
    
    Number of satellite launches planned by 2035
    
    worldwide, up to 2035
    
    > « Novaspace, otra consultora especializada, prevé más de 6.500 lanzamientos hasta 2035, aunque parte será para sustituir a unidades que lleguen al final de su vida útil. »
    
    Source: Novaspace
    
-   20 clients
    
    Number of Xcalibur Smart Mapping clients
    
    Xcalibur Smart Mapping
    
    > « Xcalibur Smart Mapping trabaja con más de 20 clientes, la mayor parte del sector público. »
    

## Classification

**Country**

Spain, Nigeria, Algeria

**Company size**

All sizes

**Industries**

Energy, utilities, environment · Government and local authorities · Industry and manufacturing

**Companies**

Pixalytics (cited), Novaspace (cited), ESA (cited), Minera Los Frailes (deploys AI), Universidad de Valencia (cited), Xcalibur Smart Mapping (supplier), Telespazio Ibérica (supplier)

**Keywords**

Earth observation, satellites, climate change, environmental monitoring, automated detection, mining

Entry written by Marsanne Studio from the cited article, with the help of an AI model (claude-sonnet-5). The rights to the article and its illustrations belong to Cinco Días and its author. Entry translated from French by Claude Sonnet 5.5.