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A call for integrated and cooperative global sharing of China’s Earth observation data

Nature Geoscience volume 18, pages 1071–1073 (2025)Cite this article

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Greater accessibility to China’s vast archive of satellite Earth observations could enhance scientific progress, disaster preparedness, and international cooperation.

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Fig. 1: Publications referencing Landsat, MODIS, and Sentinel satellites greatly exceed those citing Fengyun or Gaofen.

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Acknowledgements

We thank all respondents who provided valuable perspectives on access to China’s Earth observations.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Geographical Sciences, University of Maryland, College Park, MD, USA

    Dong Chen & Alexandra Tyukavina

  2. Center for Global Change and Earth Observations, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI, USA

    David P. Roy

  3. Department of Geography, Environment, and Spatial Sciences, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI, USA

    David P. Roy

  4. Department of Natural Resources and the Environment, University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT, USA

    Zhe Zhu

  5. CSIRO Environment, Canberra, Australian Capital Territory, Australia

    Tim R. McVicar

  6. School of Geography and Environmental Science, University of Southampton, Southampton, UK

    Justin Sheffield & Peter M. Atkinson

  7. Faculty of Science and Technology, Lancaster University, Lancaster, UK

    Peter M. Atkinson

  8. Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of California, Irvine, CA, USA

    Amir AghaKouchak & Eric Rignot

  9. Department of Earth System Science, University of California, Irvine, CA, USA

    Amir AghaKouchak & Eric Rignot

  10. United Nations University Institute for Water, Environment and Health, Ontario, Canada

    Amir AghaKouchak

  11. Department of Geoinformatics, University of Salzburg, Salzburg, Austria

    Thomas Blaschke

  12. Department of Environmental Sciences, Environmental Geosciences, University of Basel, Basel, Switzerland

    Pasquale Borrelli

  13. Department of Science, Roma Tre University, Rome, Italy

    Pasquale Borrelli

  14. Department of Geodesy and Geoinformation, Technische Universität Wien, Vienna, Austria

    Wouter Dorigo

  15. Department of Geoscience and Natural Resource Management, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark

    Rasmus Fensholt

  16. Independent researcher, Zürich, Switzerland

    Noel Gorelick

  17. Environmental Defense Fund Europe, Brussels, Belgium

    Luis Guanter

  18. Research Institute of Water and Environmental Engineering (IIAMA), Universitat Politècnica de València, Valencia, Spain

    Luis Guanter

  19. Integrated Research on Energy, Environment & Society, Energy and Sustainability Research Institute Groningen, University of Groningen, Groningen, The Netherlands

    Klaus Hubacek

  20. Division of Biological and Environmental Sciences and Engineering (BESE), King Abdullah University of Science and Technology, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia

    Matthew F. McCabe

  21. Hydro-Climatic Extremes Lab (H-CEL), Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium

    Diego G. Miralles

  22. TUM School of Life Sciences, Technical University of Munich, Freising, Germany

    Anja Rammig

  23. Department of Biogeochemical Integration, Max Planck Institute for Biogeochemistry, Jena, Germany

    Markus Reichstein

  24. Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA, USA

    Eric Rignot

  25. Woodwell Climate Research Center, Falmouth, MA, USA

    Brendan M. Rogers

  26. Faculty of Science, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands

    Sander Veraverbeke

  27. School of Environmental Sciences, University of East Anglia, Norwich, UK

    Sander Veraverbeke

  28. Institute for Sustainable Agriculture (IAS), Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC), Córdoba, Spain

    Pablo J. Zarco-Tejada

  29. School of Agriculture, Food and Ecosystem Sciences (SAFES), Faculty of Science (FoS), University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

    Pablo J. Zarco-Tejada

  30. Department of Infrastructure Engineering, Faculty of Engineering and Information Technology (FEIT), University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

    Pablo J. Zarco-Tejada

  31. Université de Toulouse, LEGOS (CNES/CNRS/IRD/UT3), Toulouse, France

    Etienne Berthier

Authors
  1. Dong Chen
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  2. David P. Roy
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  3. Zhe Zhu
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  4. Tim R. McVicar
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  5. Justin Sheffield
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  6. Peter M. Atkinson
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  7. Amir AghaKouchak
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  8. Thomas Blaschke
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  9. Pasquale Borrelli
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  10. Wouter Dorigo
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  11. Rasmus Fensholt
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  12. Noel Gorelick
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  13. Luis Guanter
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  14. Klaus Hubacek
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  15. Matthew F. McCabe
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  16. Diego G. Miralles
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  17. Anja Rammig
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  18. Markus Reichstein
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  19. Eric Rignot
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  20. Brendan M. Rogers
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  21. Alexandra Tyukavina
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  22. Sander Veraverbeke
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  23. Pablo J. Zarco-Tejada
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  24. Etienne Berthier
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Dong Chen.

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The authors declare no competing interests.

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Chen, D., Roy, D.P., Zhu, Z. et al. A call for integrated and cooperative global sharing of China’s Earth observation data. Nat. Geosci. 18, 1071–1073 (2025). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41561-025-01833-x

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