12–18 October 2025 Earth science is truly out of this world!

Did you know Earth observation is like giving our planet a regular health check?

Just like doctors use scans to understand what’s happening inside our bodies, scientists use satellite imagery and ground sensors to "scan" the Earth. These observations reveal how forests grow or shrink, how oceans warm, how cities expand, and even how the air we breathe changes over time.

From high above, satellites capture snapshots of Earth’s surface and atmosphere - day after day, year after year. These images and data streams are then decoded to uncover stories about our environment: the retreat of glaciers, the blooming of algae, the spread of wildfires, or the recovery of ecosystems.

Earth observation helps us see the invisible, track the changeable, and protect the vulnerable making it one of the most powerful tools we have to care for our planet.

Did you know we can track changes in Australia’s landscape using satellite data that goes back over 50 years?

From droughts and floods to shifting sandbars, growing cities, and changing vegetation, Earth observation satellites let us see how our world transforms over time. It’s like a time machine for the environment.

The insight we gain from this data helps:

• Farmers monitor crops and plantations
• Emergency managers track fires and floods
• City planners identify areas for growth
• Environmental managers study long-term changes
• And all of us appreciate the beauty of our land and coastlines

The successful launch of Sentinel-2C (October 2024) means even sharper eyes in the sky to help us monitor Australia’s changing landscape! Checkout the full story Sentinel-2C Launch!

Check out this Earth observation image of Tern Island near Perth, for example. The sandbar has completely changed direction since the 1980s! With tools like Digital Earth Australia Coastlines, you can explore how your favourite beach has changed over the decades.

Fifty years of Landsat on the Fuzzy Logic podcast

For fifty years, the partnership between ŮŮÊÓƵand the United States Geological Survey has revolutionised our understanding of the Earth from space. Through the Landsat program, we’ve gained invaluable insights into our environment, from monitoring deforestation and urban growth to managing water resources and agricultural lands. Listen to our experts - David Hudson, Medhavy Thankappan and Eloise Birchall who chatted with Broderick last Earth Science Week on all things Earth observation and LandSat Next in celebration of 50 years of LandSat!

Careers in Space-Based Earth Science: So many possibilities!

If you’re curious about how Space helps us understand and protect our planet, there’s a whole universe of career options waiting for you in Earth Science!

Into positioning and mapping? You could become a:

• Cartographer
• Mapping specialist
• Cloud engineer
• Geodesist
• Field technician

Fascinated by Earth observations? Explore roles like:

• Satellite imagery analyst
• 3D visualisation specialist
• Environmental scientist
• Satellite engineer
• Mapping specialist
• Systems engineer
• Earth Observation Scientist

Whether you're passionate about technology, the environment, data, or how the Earth changes, there's a path for you in this exciting field.

Wondering what to study? Check out our flyer ‘’. It’s packed with info to help you find the right course and career path – no matter where your interests lie.

Meet Alla Metlenko - Earth observation scientist and Director of Research and Product Development who helps turn Satellite Data into Smart Decisions

Satellite imagery can tell us so much about our country – but how do we get the useful information from all the data? Alla and her team are at the forefront of finding new ways to turn Earth Observation data into smart decision-ready tools! We sat down with Alla and had a chat about her work and how she got into this amazing but little-known field.

What does a day in the life of a Director managing Earth Observation scientists look like?

Dropping my daughter to college on my way to work or supervising her driving to school. Grab a coffee from Blackstone Café! Catch up with my team virtually via teams with some Canberra based and/or working remotely from elsewhere around Australia. Then the usual office tasks managing people, resources, budgets and/or delivering projects and business as usual and outcomes for Geoscience Australia’s Earth Observation Program.

What is the best part of your job?

The people, working with the scientists and engineers that develop our Earth observation products and services. Seeing the data used and applied in different disciplines.

What inspired you to become an Earth observation Scientist?

Being exposed to remote sensing at university and being intrigued that imaging sensors on board on satellites whizzing around our earth saw the Earth beyond the visible part of the spectrum. I was fascinated that through the imagery we could see near-middle-thermal infrared. Since this realisation and knowledge, every time I was flying in a plane looking down at the landscape I wondered what that would look like if I could see the photosynthetic activity of living matter, and/or wondered what I could see in the water be if I could remove the blue part of the spectrum or could see at night using the thermal part of the spectrum and so on.

What subjects did you take at school or university?

I started with a Land Information degree majoring in Surveying, then went to do a master’s by research in applied science in remote sensing and GIS. Where I developed a hierarchical classification system to try and map an endangered bird species habit the Plains-wanderer in Northern Plains of Victoria. Here I applied all the great knowledge and skills I was exposed to during university, such as how to use GPS to create training data, GIS to undertake spatial analysis coupled with applying out puts from a statistical habitat models created by other scientists, you name it. You name it, I knew if I could combine all these into developing the best classifier it would improve my chances in being able to map this elusive bird’s habitat.

What did your pathway to this career look like?

I did not set out to become an EO scientist, this job did not exist when I first commenced university. On graduating from my master’s degree, I applied for jobs in local, state and Commonwealth government agencies and was offered a job as a graduate in AUSLIG – the land information group. Here I joined the Maritime Boundaries team to apply and use remotely sensed imagery specifically looking at Synthetic Aperture Radar on whether it could help delineate the water’s edge at low astronomical tide. From which different exclusive economic zones could be delineated. Guess what? DEA’s Coastlines product now does that using optical imagery, it delineates a water line at the tide height when the satellite image is captured (not at low astronomical tide (LAT) unfortunately). However, maybe we could extrapolate a LAT water line by combining existing derived water lines from our DEA Coastlines, with our new high and low water tide composites (released in May as part of our updated DEA intertidal product) with a time stamp of a past and/or predicted future LAT.

What impact does Earth observation have on our lives and how can Earth observation science help to solve the big challenges the world is facing?

Gosh there are so many possibilities, seeing the evidence of change through time to whatever lens you want to put over it whether it is biological, ecological, geomorphological, meteorological, climatological, even geological although that could take a long time unless it a very sudden shift caused by an earthquake causing a landslide and/or tsunami.

What is your favourite example of your work in action?

If I could slightly alter this question to ask, what changes have you seen since first starting your career and/or what has changed the way you work? I would say advancements in technology, such as supercomputing and cloud computing. This has enabled data mining, big data analytics, and the introduction of the fourth dimension to our analysis, which is time! The time series has been a game changer to what we see changing when, on the surface of Earth. This will be further super charged with machine learning and artificial intelligence, no doubt! Perhaps enabling us to predict and/or forecast change before it happens. Using predictive modelling with all sorts of data feeding into it, such as EO, LIDAR, aerial photography, and other geospatial and administrative layers such as digital elevation models, cadastre, population statics and in situ field measurements all in real time! The possibilities are endless and exciting!

Thanks so much to Alla for giving us her time and perspective!

For the kids! Download our ‘Satellite Selfies’ poster

Ouris a great resource with striking examples of satellite imagery from across Australia, demonstrating how we track natural hazards and monitor environmental changes.

Check out these images of space-based Earth science in action!