Orbitron satellite9/6/2023 ![]() The data also further our knowledge of Earth’s surface movements, such as land uplift caused by the melting of thick ice sheets. ![]() GOCE’s data, now delivered through ESA’s Heritage Space Programme, provide new insights into the physics of Earth’s interior, such as the geodynamics associated with the lithosphere and mantle composition. The first Earth Explorer, the Gravity Field and Steady-State Ocean Circulation Explorer ( GOCE), used a state-of-the-art gradiometer to form a detailed global model of Earth’s gravity field and geoid. Using ground-breaking space technologies, the Earth Explorer family of research missions have long contributed to monitoring solid Earth. In January, the powerful Hunga Tonga eruption served as a painful reminder how the tectonics of Earth’s strong outer layer (lithosphere) can impact our growing population. Sea-level changes are influenced by surface motions of solid Earth, such as regional ice melt and rebound of Earth’s surface following de-glaciation. Processes within solid Earth directly impact our environment. Many of ESA’s Earth observation satellites reveal key information about the structure of these internal layers and their interactions with each other and the cryosphere, hydrosphere, atmosphere and ionosphere. The processes deep inside Earth’s core and crust and on its surface are critical to understanding Earth’s system as a whole. This Earth Online Thematic article showcases the many ESA missions helping scientists better understand how solid Earth and its processes affect the planet’s changing environment. One root constituent of Earth’s system is “solid Earth”, meaning the inner core, the (liquid) outer core, the lower and upper mantle and the crust. As anthropogenic activities continue to unbalance our environment, scientists strive to fully understand the intricate interactions within Earth’s system.
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