Simonetta Cheli is the director of Earth observation programs at the European Space Agency (ESA) and the head of the European Space Research Institute (ESRIN) in Frascati, Italy. With nearly 40 years of experience in the field, she is one of the world's leading experts on Earth observation.
Live Science spoke with Cheli on a recent visit to ESRIN to talk about why Earth observation is so important, how NASA budget cuts and political changes have altered the picture, and why private space satellites risk our ability to view the planet clearly. She also discussed how new supercomputers, like ESRIN's newly operational Space HPC, are helping to process vast amounts of data like never before — and shared her favorite recent satellite snap of our planet
Simonetta Cheli became ESA's director of Earth observation programs and head of ESRIN on Jan. 1, 2022, more than three decades after joining the agency. She was born in Siena, Italy, and went on to study law and economics at Yale University before gaining a degree in political sciences at the University 'Cesare Alfieri' in Florence, Italy. She also holds a diploma of advanced studies from the Centre d’Etudes Diplomatiques et Stratégiques in Paris. (Image credit: ESA)Simonetta Cheli: It's important because we need to know today what is the state of our planet, if it's healthy or if it's in danger, if it's stressed or not.
HB: How has ESA's Earth observation program changed throughout your career?
We launched the first mission [ERS-1] in 1991. Today, just here at ESRIN, we manage over 20 missions and are planning more than 40 more. We have also launched three different missions in the last three weeks — one to look at how oceanography impacts extreme weather events [International Report for an Innovative Defence of Earth]; one to monitor the fluorescence and health status of vegetation [Fluorescence Explorer]; and one to measure temperature on land and sea [Sentinel-3C], which was a super useful thing this summer.
Cheli is one of the world's leading experts on Earth observation and currently oversees more than 20 different missions that are monitoring our planet from above. (Image credit: ESA)HB: How important is it to cooperate with other countries when observing our planet from above?
We used to go to the climate conferences together. We are not anymore.
To tackle climate and environmental stability, you cannot just do things alone at the national level. You have to share data and work with everybody in the world, where you have to have common objectives. For example, what happens to Greenland affects everybody on Earth, not just the people who live there. So the collaboration, I think, is very much inherent in our daily job at ESA and between our partners.
SC: I think we certainly have a bigger opportunity in the sense that today, with the systems we have and the satellites we have and the missions we have, even before the political context. For example, we were already leading the U.S. with data on emissions.
Live Science recently visited Frascati to see ESRIN's newly-operational Space HPC supercomputer. (Image credit: Harry Baker/Live Science)HB: ESA just launched the latest batch of satellites in the IRIDE constellation (an Italian funded network of Earth-observing spacecraft designed and operated by ESA). What makes these satellites so special? And how are they helping your research?
Sixty-eight satellites are planned overall in this constellation, and we have launched quite a few [39] already, and plan to launch some more before the end of the year.
On Sept. 14, ESA also launched the Sentinel-3C satellite on board at Vega rocket that lifted off from the agency's launch site in French Guiana. (Image credit: European Commission)HB: The number of private satellites, like in SpaceX's Starlink constellation, is increasing fast. Are you worried about the impacts that this might have on your scientific spacecraft?
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"Everybody" in space is no longer only the institutional partners; it's not just the space agencies of the world that should engage. Today, you have private actors, like Starlink, and if they don't engage in the same rules, you risk having a delicate situation. But this is something that we are discussing daily, and we're tackling.
SC: There is a very strong objective linked to sustainability at ESA. It is not just about using the data to better preserve our planet; it's also about being sustainable in the daily work we do.
Chelli has been working at ESA for nearly 40 years, and believes that global cooperation is essential in Earth observation. (Image credit: ESA)There's a really dedicated team doing all this.
SC: We have today a wealth of data that is continually increasing. Just in the Copernicus program [Europe's biggest Earth observation initiative], we receive 500 terabytes of data per day.
Chelli (center right) was one of the people chosen to cut the ribbon at the opening of ESRIN's Space HPC supercomputer on March 12, 2025. (Image credit: ESA)
So instruments like SpaceHPC, which have high computing capability, help us a lot to process those datasets faster.
SC: I have too many favorite satellite photos, I must say. But this summer, the one I really found striking was a thermal image of Europe's heatwaves because, in that image, you see that the temperature on land and on sea was increasing so much.
This photo, captured by ESA's Sentinel-3B satellite in June 2026, shows land and sea surface temperatures spiking across Southern Europe. While it is concerning, Cheli says that the image gives her hope about our ability to monitor such extreme weather events in the future. (Image credit: ESA/Sentinel-3B)But it makes me feel that we can do a lot about it. It makes me feel that we have tools and certainly information capabilities to support, help, and also raise awareness about this topic.
This interview has been condensed and edited for clarity.
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