Sodankylä research helped develop satellite tracking plant life
Wednesday 21st October 2026 on 08:15 in
Finland
More than 20 years of measurements in Sodankylä helped develop the European Space Agency’s FLEX satellite, launched on September 15 to study plant photosynthesis from space, Yle reports.
The work began in 2003, when researchers measured a faint light signal called fluorescence in the northern coniferous forest for the first time. Plants emit the signal when they receive sunlight. At the time, scientists did not know whether it could be measured outside a laboratory.
Malcolm Davidson, a Canadian researcher who works for the European Space Agency, first visited Sodankylä that year. He and other researchers were trying to capture the moment when vegetation shifts from dormancy to active growth. The idea of detecting the fluorescence signal from space had been proposed five years earlier.
FLEX was launched from French Guiana in South America. Measurements taken in the forests and wetlands around Sodankylä will be compared with the satellite’s results to check their accuracy.
A research station opened a year ago at the Arctic Space Centre in Sodankylä. Led by the European Space Agency and the Finnish Meteorological Institute, it is the first Supersite station, set up to verify whether satellites are measuring reliably. Instruments on a tower and around it collect data from a nearby wetland.
The research aims to improve understanding of how vegetation responds to drought, heat and other environmental changes. The findings could inform research into the carbon cycle, ecosystem health and food production. One key question is how climate change affects vegetation.
Sodankylä has suitable infrastructure and expertise for studying the northern coniferous forest, Davidson said. Environmental measurements have been taken there for more than 100 years, during which time the temperature has risen by more than two degrees. Davidson said he was concerned about the changes and hoped his children would grow up in a world with food security and fewer natural disasters.
Davidson said the long effort had been worthwhile. “It was worth being patient,” he said.