With the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) releasing its 4^th Assessment Report last week, climate change is more than ever a focus of concern. As part of this review effort, CNES is co-organizing a conference/debate with the City of Cannes on the role of satellites in advancing research into global warming. The event will take place in Cannes on 7 February.

Over the last 10 years, a host of Earth-orbiting satellites—Topex/Poseidon, Jason, Envisat and Calipso among them—have been surveying our planet’s climate from space. They have become vital tools for oceanographers and climatologists, contributing to the research that informed the IPCC’s 4^th Assessment Report.

Speakers from the scientific community and the space industry will be talking about various aspects of global warming.

Following publication of the IPCC’s report on 2 February, Michel Petit, who chairs the Environment Committee at the French Science Academy, will be taking the opportunity to review the key factors contributing to rising temperatures on Earth. Alain Ratier, Deputy Director of the French national weather service Meteo France, will address the impacts of climate change on France in particular.

The conference/debate will take place on 7 February at the Espace Miramar in Cannes and is part of the Seeing our World from Space operation co-organized with CNES. Alongside an exhibition covering 2 decades of Earth observation by the SPOT satellites, the City of Cannes is also putting on a number of scientific activities, school workshops and a slide show to extend learning opportunities for participants.