Institute of Physics: Thermometers, satellites and waves: The hidden science behind climate change measurements

This lecture explores how climate change is measured, tracing the science from traditional observing networks to modern Earth-observing satellites. It looks at how different instruments, working in different countries and across many decades, are combined to create the records that scientists, policymakers and society rely on.

The talk explains why measuring environmental change is more complex than taking measurements in a laboratory, and why uncertainty matters in climate science. It also highlights the importance of international collaboration, showing how satellite observations, sea level rise data and climate monitoring are used to build trustworthy evidence about our changing planet.