Original subtitles

Planet Earth, our home.

From the vantage point of space, astronauts get a unique perspective

on the world.

We have this one tiny planet.

We're just a speck in this universe.

This rock,

Spaceship Earth, is all we have.

We've got to make this planet work.

We really have to work together as a species.

Less than 650 people have seen this with their own eyes.

But now we can all share an astronaut's view.

Every day, hundreds of satellites take millions of photographs,

revealing Planet Earth in a whole new way.

From remote volcanoes...

..devastating hurricanes...

..the world's biggest music festivals...

..fires...

..floods...

..and armies ready for war...

..from space,

you can see it all.

And in 2022, there was more to see than ever before.

On the cusp of 2022...

..satellites look down on a world starting to recover

from the Covid-19 pandemic.

Optimism is in the air.

Happy New Year!

There are signs that life might return to normal.

BIG BEN CHIMES

Above our heads, travelling at 27,000km an hour...

..satellites orbit the Earth every 90 minutes.

As the year begins, they see cities around the globe coming back

to life after lockdown.

In Florida, visitors start to return to Disney World.

In San Francisco,

the 49ers welcomed back their fans.

And at the Metrocentre in Gateshead, the car parks are full again.

But it's not just human activity that can be seen from space.

Satellites also capture the extraordinary power of the Earth

escaping to the surface.

Volcanoes...

..like Etna smoking away in Sicily.

In Indonesia, Krakatoa still glows almost 140 years

after the devastating 1883 eruption.

And in the middle of the Pacific Ocean lies the archipelago of Tonga.

65km north of the main island of Tongatapu lies

the underwater volcano

Hunga Tonga.

At the beginning of 2022, volcanologists use satellite

imagery to monitor its awakening.

It erupted semi-regularly and we weren't particularly worried

about Hunga volcano.

After ten days, scientists conclude the activity is dying down.

But Earth is full of surprises.

On January the 15th, the island of Tongatapu is hit by a sonic boom...

SHOUTING

..caused by a massive eruption.

It takes multiple satellites to capture the true scale

of the blast.

The plume of ash and gas that shoots into the stratosphere is measured

by Shane Cronin.

The Hunga eruption ejected something in the order of seven

cubic kilometres of material.

Scientists calculate the power of this blast is equivalent

to 4,000 Hiroshima bombs.

In the age of satellite imagery,

this is by far the biggest eruption we've seen.

As the plume reaches the stratosphere, a pressure wave

is tracked all around the world.

The eruption generates hurricane speed winds.

It creates an underwater shock wave, cutting phone and internet cables

linking Tonga to the world.

Roads are flooded.

Walls and fences have crumbled.

Communications are crippled, leaving relatives in Australia

desperate for news.

Satellite images become the only way of knowing

what is happening on Tonga.

They reveal the devastating scale of the eruption.

Tonga's tropical landscape is covered in a thick layer

of grey volcanic ash.

On some islands,

not a single house remains standing.

So what sort of machine does it take to get these remarkable pictures,

picking out an individual house from 400km up?

You'd imagine it would be pretty big.

Here is one of our satellites.

This is not a scaled down model - it's actually the real size.

So I can just about hold it in my hand.

It does expand out with solar panels to take power from the sun,

and the camera's at the back and the telescope's at the front.

And so this is what's looking down as we take images

across the whole Earth.

Each satellite takes up to eight images per second and there's

about 200 of these satellites.

So we take about 4 million images per day.

In early February, satellites capture images

from the outskirts of Beijing.

They show previously

brown hills developing mysterious white trails.

Turns out this is the venue for the 2022 Winter Olympics.

Because the hills surrounding Beijing have very little snow,

300 snow guns are brought in to create an artificial piste

for the Games.

While the world is watching the Winter Olympics, military analyst

Jeffrey Lewis is investigating a set of mysterious images

from the Russia-Ukraine border.

For months, he has been watching the area around Belgorod.

Those of us working with commercial satellite imagery, we're seeing

the enormous ring of steel and death encircling Ukraine.

It didn't look like any other image that we had ever seen.

We have real concerns about Russia's unusual military activity.

Russian troops tend to park their vehicles in predictable

patterns, essentially camping.

We spotted a unit close to the border.

This was a combat unit that was intended as the spearhead

of an invasion.

All of the vehicles were lined up on the verge of going someplace.

Then we see a huge traffic jam show up on the highway

between the location of that armoured unit

and the Ukrainian border.

So we know the invasion is going to start before we are likely to get

another picture of this unit.

By the time we get another picture, it will be gone and the war

will have started.

So I'm calling and texting reporters this image, saying, "Look,

"there is going to be an invasion," but no-one can see what we see.

Jeffrey Lewis informs the US military of his fears.

He is just one of many analysts alerting the world.

But the Russians dismiss their claims.

But on February the 24th...

..they strike.

I was living in the left side of Kyiv.

I woke up from sounds from bombs or rockets and tried to understand

what was going on.

It was very scary.

Putin chose this war, and now he and his country will

bear the consequences.

You can see destruction unfold from space.

But you can also see creation.

My first mission just kind of blew me away.

You really see that we're all interconnected

on this living, breathing system.

And those aspects that nurture life do appear frighteningly fragile.

In England's Bristol Channel,

microscopic phytoplankton multiply in their billions to turn

the sea green.

A vital food source for other marine life.

Off the coast of Korea, satellite images show strange

bar-like patterns...

..seaweed farms.

A response to the world's growing taste for sushi.

And as February comes to an end, off the west coast of Canada,

satellites capture one of the most remarkable events of the year.

In British Columbia, the sea around Hornby Island turns white.

Millions of Pacific herring return from the open ocean to their native

shores to lay eggs.

These milky white waters are billions of herring eggs

seen from space.

With the herring come salmon...

..whales, seals, sea lions.

Almost everything eats them.

To witness this tremendous coming together of life,

you are in a very special place and moment in time.

After three weeks, the herring swim back to the deep ocean...

..until next year, when they'll return to Hornby Island.

March 2022.

As the month begins, the Russian invasion of Ukraine

is gathering pace.

Satellites show 100,000 Russian troops and over 3,000 tanks pouring

over the Ukrainian border from the north, east and south.

Evidence that is confirmed by reports on the ground.

The Russians attack with missiles and artillery.

In the chaos,

it's hard to get a clear picture of what's happening.

But from above, it becomes obvious.

Satellites are monitoring Kyiv at night

when missile strikes on key infrastructure plunge

the city into darkness.

The country is being attacked from all directions.

And the fear now has to be that some of those Russian troops are heading

here, to the capital.

A military convoy 65km long can be seen approaching

Kyiv from the north.

Many believe the city will fall within days.

Images from space pick up thousands of cars heading

in the opposite direction towards Ukraine's western border

as civilians try to escape.

22-year-old Sofia Volovyk was in Kyiv when the war broke out.

I started my way to the train station.

I felt very, very nervous because Russians -

they started to bomb.

Your blood is cold but you still need to walk.

It was very scary.

Over 3 million people rush to get out of Ukraine.

Sofia and her family are among them.

This exodus creates 30km-long queues of cars and people

that are visible from space.

I was on the border and I was there at 5am.

There was a massive queue.

I've spent more than 11 hours in the queue to cross the border.

While millions of civilians leave the country,

satellite images pick up a new development.

North of Kyiv,

the Russian army convoy has ground to a halt

40km from the city.

Russia's dream of a lightning victory has stalled.

But the war continues.

Satellites are crucial to seeing events on the ground in Ukraine.

But they also monitor the sky above us...

..revealing key data about the weather that shapes our daily lives.

On March the 14th,

images from space show a strange phenomenon

approaching Southern Europe.

The air above Spain and Portugal turns a deep red colour.

Cities like Granada are covered in a thin layer of orange dust.

The dust is from the Sahara, but it's only from a space

that you can see the true scale of the phenomenon.

Every year, between March and July, westerly winds blow

across North Africa and the Sahara Desert, picking up millions

of tonnes of dust as they go.

Normally, this dust blows west across the Atlantic.

But 2022 is different.

Unusual weather patterns blow the dust northwards towards Europe,

coating everything in its path, including ski slopes

in the Pyrenees.

Woo-hoo-hoo!

As April comes to the Northern Hemisphere, spring is in the air.

The tulip fields of Holland are in full bloom.

In New York City,

Central Park turns green.

And in Luoping County, China, acres of canola turn the fields

a vibrant yellow.

From space, you can see that the Earth is this beautiful blue marble,

and more than two thirds of the Earth's surface

are covered by water.

My mission was for half a year.

When you have been up there for months and you can see

the coral reefs,

you are longing to just dive down and jump into the water.

The biggest coral reef of them all is Australia's Great Barrier Reef.

Easily visible from space,

it's the largest living structure on Earth.

Knowing how diverse the life is around the Barrier Reef,

we see how much our planet is forged by these big oceans.

But despite its size, the reef is vulnerable

to damage from overheating.

Summer 2022 sees record-breaking heat in Australia.

Satellite data shows the water around the reef is almost two

degrees hotter than in a normal year.

Data from space also shows that large areas

of the reef are bleaching.

Caused by warming water,

bleaching is dangerous but not necessarily fatal.

Later in 2022,

satellite data shows the seas around Australia have cooled.

Researchers discover the coral is recovering in two thirds

of the Great Barrier Reef.

But a third of the reef is still battling to survive.

All through April,

on the other side of the world,

satellites observe another fight for survival -

the continuing war in Ukraine.

By late April, Russian columns can be seen withdrawing

from the Ukrainian capital.

Russia's offensive on Kyiv has failed.

Our army destroyed whole plans of Russians.

Better we die if we give the city to the Russians.

Satellites reveal devastation across the country

as the Russians pull back.

And something more sinister.

In Manhush, images from space reveal freshly dug mass graves.

In a churchyard in Bucha, another mass grave is identified.

Investigations start into possible war crimes.

In the south and east of the country,

the Russian shelling continues.

Civilian targets are hit.

In Mariupol, 40% of the buildings are destroyed.

In the drama theatre, hundreds of families have taken shelter.

They've even written the word "Children" outside.

Here, as many as 600 are killed.

This shopping mall in Kremenchuk suffers a direct hit.

It is month two of the war, and there is no end in sight.

When you're looking down on the Earth and you realise

that people are fighting each other as opposed to this view

that you have of people all being part of a single planet...

..it's really saddening.

Images from space can see into every corner of Planet Earth.

They can reveal changes in parts of the planet

where humans seldom venture.

This is Glacier Bay in Alaska.

These are floating ice floes off the coast of Greenland.

And this is the Conger ice shelf in Antarctica, an area bigger

than New York City that melted in 2022.

At both poles,

ice has been melting faster and faster in the last few decades.

Satellite imagery has been key to monitoring these effects

of climate change.

1,200 miles north of Norway is the Arctic Ocean

archipelago of Svalbard.

As the days lengthen, scientists are using satellite imagery

to analyse how the loss of ice is changing the behaviour of one

of the Arctic's crucial indicator species -

the walrus.

Despite being big and powerful, they're also increasingly vulnerable

to the climate crisis.

They use sea ice as a platform for resting on between feeding trips.

They use it as a platform for breeding.

Recording walrus numbers by boat along the thousands of miles

of Svalbard's coastline would be impossible.

So Rod and his team use satellites to count walruses from space

and record their location.

His work shows that disappearing ice floes force walruses

to congregate on land.

The problem with this is that there may be 10,000 or more walrus

all crammed onto this one beach.

If the walrus get disturbed, they'll stampede.

And as they stampede towards the shore, they risk crushing some

of the young calves, and that can be fatal.

Satellite images help Rod and his team observe walruses,

seen here as individual dots, in parts of the Arctic

that are inaccessible to humans.

This data gives a baseline for researchers hoping

to save a species threatened by climate change.

But satellites can also reveal good news about our planet.

In Antarctica, Rod's team were poring over images

when they spot something surprising - a brown trail

across the pristine white ice.

They realise the trail must be penguin droppings.

This leads them to search for penguin colonies

in completely new areas.

And they find them...

..including on Cuverville Island, on the edge

of the Antarctic Peninsula.

There was first one new colony and then another one and another.

Penguin colonies can range from a few individuals

up to more than 100,000 birds in one location.

We can spot penguin colonies where no human beings have ever

been before, so it's really powerful, using satellite imagery.

Satellites help us study the behaviour of wildlife

in the most remote places.

But they also help us see human gatherings, whether that's

for sport, like these Super Bowl fans at the Eagles

ground in Philadelphia...

..leisure,

..like these beach-goers at Santa Monica, California...

..or politics, like this crowd in Pyongyang, North Korea,

who are spelling out the slogan Single-hearted Unity.

June is the month music festivals came back to Britain after Covid-19.

In Hyde Park, there is a series of concerts headlined

by The Rolling Stones.

And in Somerset,

Glastonbury Festival, the biggest of them all, returns.

In 2022, it features both its youngest headliner, Billie Eilish,

and its oldest, Sir Paul McCartney.

In London,

through a gap in the clouds, satellites catch an even bigger

crowd gathering at Hyde Park Corner.

Just some of the estimated 17 million Britons across the country

celebrating Queen Elizabeth's Platinum Jubilee,

70 years on the throne.

While Britain parties, on the other side of the globe,

in the heart of Central Asia, Afghanistan is under the heavy hand

of Taliban rule. Largely ignored by the world since 2021,

it would hit the headlines again in June 2022.

On the 21st of June, 9km beneath the Earth's surface,

a magnitude 5.9 earthquake strikes south-eastern Afghanistan

in the region of Khost.

Radar technology shows how much the Earth's crust has shifted.

The red area, about five square kilometres, has risen 40 centimetres

while the blue areas have dropped.

Scientists calculate this deformation releases an energy

equivalent to 37 times the power of the Hiroshima nuclear bomb.

Photos from space are used to assess the damage in remote villages

that have lost communications.

What people are telling us is that there are villages

up in the mountains which have been completely flattened.

Updated daily,

images from space guide rescuers to the areas that need

the most assistance.

Watching from space,

satellites give a unique perspective as the war in Ukraine grinds on

through May and June.

Before the invasion, Ukraine was the breadbasket of Europe.

New images reveal previously flourishing fields pockmarked

with craters from incoming shells.

The Russian invasion has a devastating effect

on Ukrainian farms.

In 2022, thousands of acres of ripe wheat are set ablaze.

Farmers risk shelling and land mines to work in their fields.

These images capture the aftermath of Russian strikes destroying grain

stores filled with millions of tonnes of wheat.

But there isn't just evidence of destruction.

There is also evidence of theft.

And satellites offer the proof.

This image from Sevastopol shows grain being poured

into a Russian ship.

Eight days later, the same ship is spotted 2,500km away.

It's unloading in Syria, one of Russia's key allies.

Through the summer, Russia is systematically stealing

Ukraine's agricultural produce.

You are hearing the actual signals transmitted

by the Earth-circling satellite.

One of the great scientific feats of the age.

Ever since the first satellite, Sputnik, was launched

in 1957, their numbers have increased exponentially.

There are now over 5,000 in orbit, of which more than 900 are involved

in direct Earth observation.

One of the latest, the James Webb Telescope,

doesn't look down at Earth.

It was built to look up into the heavens.

And lift-off!

And launched with a mission to uncover the history

of our universe.

There is the view from the upper stage camera on the Orion 5

looking at the James Webb Space Telescope.

In July 2022, the first images arrive, revealing the universe

as never seen before.

These images are going to remind the world, especially our children,

that there is nothing beyond our capacity.

Orbiting the sun,

the James Webb Telescope captures previously invisible regions

with stars being born - the aftermath of two galaxies colliding.

And an amazing detail of nebulae over 160,000 light years away.

My first flight was STS-109.

It was a mission to go and service the Hubble Space Telescope.

So I was really excited about the James Webb Telescope.

And we're just seeing the beginnings of it.

I think the astronomers will discover things

that we can't even imagine are out there in the universe.

The James Webb is already changing our understanding

of the universe and, with an expected life of 20 years,

it has only just begun.

Back on our home planet,

things are more immediate as a year of unrest continues.

On the island of Sri Lanka, in the capital, Colombo,

satellite images show queues of cars lining up for petrol.

The economy is breaking down.

People are suffering and the people are living with one meal per day.

Can you imagine? Can you imagine? I'm so sorry to say this.

On July 9th, tensions reach boiling point.

The president flees and thousands of protesters

storm government buildings.

Within days, queues form so big they can be seen from space.

People are lining up to see the presidential palace

and get a taste of his lavish lifestyle.

Hi, Mum.

In Sri Lanka, satellites capture unrest in the streets.

But around the world, they can also see people gathering

for worship and celebration.

In St Peter's Square in Rome, thousands of Catholics gather.

In Iran, worshippers assemble for prayer

at the Hazrat Masoumeh Shrine.

And in the sacred city of Mecca,

after two years of tight Covid restrictions,

almost a million pilgrims are allowed to gather for the Hajj.

But it isn't just religious pilgrimages taking place.

70,000 people gather in the Black Rock Desert, Nevada, USA,

for Burning Man - the music and arts festival.

They build a huge, meticulously planned, temporary city.

Conditions are extreme, with dust storms sweeping through.

And after just nine days, it returns to the desert...

..until next year.

In 2022, weather is one of the biggest stories of the year.

In July, temperatures across the UK are in the 30s and rising.

On the 19th,

they soar to a record breaking 40.3 degrees Celsius.

As July continues,

England's green and pleasant land is left arid and brown.

After weeks without rain, an official drought is declared

across much of the country.

On heat maps of European cities, red and orange show hot spots

of above 40 degrees.

All of Europe suffers as its largest rivers dry up.

The Rhine falls to a depth of less than 35 centimetres.

And in places, the Po,

Italy's longest river, disappears.

In Spain, reservoirs shrink to record lows.

It was the same across the Atlantic.

Satellite pictures show huge water loss

in some of the most iconic lakes in the US, such as Lake Mead -

the largest reservoir in the country.

In 2022, heatwave and drought are a worldwide phenomena.

As August comes, the conditions are in place

for a record breaking wildfire season.

In the United States, satellites capture over 7,000 fires

blazing in California alone. More than any other state.

In Oregon, the Cedar Creek fire lasts for over three months.

It's the most active wildfire season of the decade,

destroying over 7 million acres of land.

In Europe, data from space is used to battle the year's record fires,

allowing firefighters to see the direction and speed

at which the flames are spreading.

Spain is ravaged by wildfires, with a fourfold increase

from an average year.

In France, an area six times larger than normal is destroyed.

REPORTER: Tens of thousands of acres burnt.

Thousands of people evacuated.

Large fires break out, even in places that rarely see them.

London Fire Brigade had its busiest period yesterday

since World War II.

The flames were coming towards me up Church Lane,

so...I've ran as fast as I could.

While Europe and America are ablaze,

satellites above South Asia capture a natural disaster of another kind.

Startling images in Pakistan see whole villages vanishing

under muddy floodwaters.

The monsoon season brings rain every year,

but in 2022 it's unlike anything seen before.

Data from satellites show that by late August,

southern provinces have received more than five times

the average rainfall.

Over a metre of water, and the effects are devastating.

The Indus River and its many tributaries burst their banks,

flooding a tenth of the country.

Almost half of Pakistan's agricultural land is under water.

Across the country, 2 million homes are destroyed

and 1,200 people killed.

It's the worst flooding in Pakistan's history.

I think seeing these natural phenomena from space

should humble people.

Climate change, it's absolutely happening.

We have years and years of data and we're seeing that happening now

with more intense storms and flooding.

We need to take it seriously.

In August, satellites capture celebration and disaster

by the light of the summer sun.

But when viewed from space,

there are some things best understood in darkness.

During the night, wealthy cities stand out.

Rome.

London.

New York.

Areas in poverty, without electricity,

go black as the sunlight fades.

But there's another reason the lights go out.

War.

GUNFIRE

When I was on the Mir station, there was the Balkan conflict,

which was quite obvious because you could see that Europe

is beautifully illuminated, but then on the eastern side

you could see this whole region was pitch-black.

And of course, you know, there was conflict.

While some wars make headlines,

others are only really obvious from space.

In Ethiopia, in the region of Tigray,

the regional capital, Mekelle,

is caught in a bloody and largely unreported civil war

between the Ethiopian government and rebel forces.

NASA satellites took a time-lapse of Mekelle over two years

as its power was slowly cut off.

By August 2022,

it was in almost total darkness.

From space, satellites can see mysterious round indentations

scattered across the Earth's surface.

There is one in Canada almost 100km wide.

Another, in the Arizona desert, is 170 metres deep.

These craters are caused by asteroids crashing into the Earth

at unimaginable speeds.

Millions of years ago, a strike like this wiped out the dinosaurs.

A similar impact today would destroy life as we know it.

In response to this existential threat,

NASA developed the DART mission.

Almost a year ago, this tiny spacecraft was sent

on a one-way trip to crash into an asteroid and redirect its course.

On September 26th, DART was ready for its suicide mission.

This real time footage shows what happened next.

It smashed into an asteroid at 23,000km per hour,

changing its course.

The mission was a success.

DART had done its job.

DART was definitely a triumph for NASA.

What was so exciting were those images as the DART spacecraft

were headed toward the asteroid and getting closer and closer.

Just spectacular.

September 19th, Central London.

The streets are empty of traffic as huge crowds gather to watch

the funeral procession of Queen Elizabeth II,

who has died at the age of 96.

The longest serving monarch in British history,

she reigned for 70 years.

While Britain mourns, satellite images catch the ripples

of the Ukraine war spreading across Europe.

In the Baltic Sea, near the island of Bornholm,

off the coast of Sweden,

there is vast quantities of gas bubbling to the surface.

The cause is soon established.

The Nord Stream pipeline has been deliberately sabotaged.

On September 25th, huge queues of traffic can be seen

at Russia's Georgian border.

Days before, President Putin had announced that 300,000 men

were to be drafted into the Russian Army.

In response, over 100,000 potential conscripts flee to Georgia -

one of the few land borders Russians can cross without a visa.

September is also a tumultuous month in the natural world.

Every year in early autumn, when the oceans are at their warmest,

typhoons and hurricanes bring havoc to tropical regions.

From space, their terrifying power and beauty is awe inspiring.

The hurricane looks beautiful from up there

but, of course, you know how devastating

the forces of nature are on the surface.

You feel, thank God I'm just coasting over it.

Hurricanes need water temperatures over 26 degrees Celsius to form.

As the world's oceans heat up,

2022 sees more storms than usual, with greater power.

There was Typhoon Hinnamnor above South Korea.

Cyclone Emnati near Madagascar.

And on September 20th,

meteorologists spot a massive hurricane building in the Caribbean.

It's moving fast and gathering strength.

Satellite images show where the storm is

but vital information needed to predict its direction

cannot be captured from space alone.

Critical wind speed and pressure data has to be gathered

from the eye of the storm.

And that's where aerospace engineer Nick Underwood and his team come in.

The better job we can do up in the air,

the better those forecasts are going to be

and the earlier we can warn people

that they need to get out of the way.

As Hurricane Ian approaches Florida,

it gathers strength and generates huge lightning storms.

Nick and his team fly right into the eye,

braving winds of 200km an hour.

Storm Ian was definitely the roughest flight I've been on.

That was definitely the worst.

Whoa!

Satellite radar images illustrate the intensity of the rainfall.

They show that at 3:00pm on September 28th,

Hurricane Ian makes landfall in southwestern Florida

as a Category 4 storm.

WIND HOWLS

It unleashes a four-and-a-half metre storm surge

and dumps half a metre of rain.

Millions are forced to evacuate.

Thousands are rescued from the floods and over 100 people die.

As well as helping to track its course and strength,

satellite images of before and after

reveal the scale of destruction caused by Hurricane Ian.

The deadliest storm in Florida for almost a century.

As October begins, Russia is reinforcing its army in Ukraine.

But the Ukrainians are finding new ways to hit back.

In 2014, Russia had annexed Crimea.

This satellite time-lapse shows them building an important strategic link

between Russia and Crimea - the Kerch Bridge.

In 2022, it became a major supply route for the Russian Army.

Until this...

EXPLOSION

Both road and rail links are hit by a massive explosion.

Photos from space show the burning bridge

and footage from the scene shows the ferocity of the blast.

It is estimated that the bridge will not be fully operational

until at least September 2023.

But satellites do much more than simply follow wars and disasters.

They also keep an eye on the natural world.

Scientists spot grey whales off the coast of Mexico.

Data like this helps track these elusive creatures.

In the Southern Ocean,

the Chatham Islands are home to nesting albatrosses.

These isolated rock stacks are so inaccessible,

scientists are using satellites to count the individual birds.

Each of these white specks is an albatross incubating an egg.

And in East Africa, satellites observe

the largest land migration on Earth.

Each of these dots is a wildebeest

standing two-and-a-half metres tall and weighing around 270 kilos.

Every year, a million of these creatures

makes their endless journey from the Serengeti

to the plains of the Masai Mara in Kenya.

And back again.

The herds are huge and the distances they cover vast.

The sheer scale makes it difficult to study their behaviour

from the ground.

But using images from space,

researchers can examine behaviour across hundreds of miles.

Here, wildebeest are nose to tail.

They are on the move.

But here, across the plain,

another group are lined up side by side,

presenting a united front to the herd.

They are grazing and no-one wants to be isolated.

Here, the herd is strangely circling a tree.

And this is why.

Egypt - a cradle of ancient civilisation.

Its pyramids are visible from space 4,500 years after they were built.

In November 2022, the world's eyes are on the Red Sea resort

of Sharm El-Sheikh for COP27.

JOE BIDEN: Climate crisis is about the very life of the planet.

COP27 is focused on climate change

but Egypt's most immediate environmental challenge

comes from another source - threats to its water supply.

Since the time of the pharaohs, the Nile has been at the heart

of Egyptian life, seen here in the centre of a narrow strip

of fertile land running through the desert.

Now Egypt's water supply is threatened

by the country's growing population,

which has doubled in the last 30 years.

Images taken over several decades show the rapid expansion of Cairo.

And east of the old capital, a new, carefully planned city is emerging

from this parched landscape, designed to house 6 million people.

The only source of water for all these government buildings,

houses and parks is the Nile.

But over 1,600 kilometres south, near its source,

Ethiopians also need the Nile's life-giving water.

In 2022, satellites show the third filling

of the Grand Renaissance hydroelectric dam.

When full, it will hold back 70 billion cubic metres of water -

more than flows through Egypt each year.

For the Egyptians, this restriction of the Nile

is a further threat to their limited water resources.

Hydroelectricity is one form of renewable energy,

but, across the world, other clean power projects are springing up.

Each of these dots is a wind turbine rising out of Britain's North Sea

with a blade diameter longer than a football field.

Giant solar farms are also visible from space,

like this plant near Seville, where a tower collects the light

reflected by an array of mirrors.

In China, solar panels cover the hillside by a provincial town.

Other Chinese solar farms take on more creative shapes.

If you look up on a clear night,

you can see satellites passing overhead,

and the most visible is the International Space Station.

It's the third brightest object in the night sky

after the Moon and Venus.

Two of my flights were part of building

the International Space Station.

And so here was a collaboration of five different space agencies

representing 15 countries that had gotten together and say,

"What can we do for the benefit of humanity?"

Over the last 22 years, the Space Station has been visited

by 263 astronauts from 20 countries.

One of them is Thomas Reiter,

who travelled to space twice ten years apart,

and he observed the human impact on the Amazon rainforest.

When you are looking down, you see these huge areas

where the rainforest is cut,

especially comparing my first mission and the second mission.

Satellites have been tracking the deforestation of the Amazon

for the last 40 years.

These images show the dense green canopy disappearing

to make way for cattle and crops.

When you see it with your own eyes,

I have to say, I really got very worried.

In Brazil, a fifth of its rainforest has been destroyed

over the last four decades.

But November perhaps brought some hope.

Brazil's newly elected president, Lula da Silva,

pledged to stop the deforestation.

The success or failure of his promise

will be monitored from space for decades to come.

Space technology can help us observe changes on our planet.

But it also allows us to venture far beyond it.

On November 16th, Cape Canaveral, Florida, is shaken by the launch

of the most powerful rocket ever built.

Five, four, stage engine start,

three, two, one,

booster and ignition.

And lift off of Artemis 1!

We rise together, back to the Moon and beyond.

It's been 50 years since humans stood on the moon.

Artemis 1 is the beginning of a programme

to establish a base on the lunar surface.

As it accelerates towards its escape velocity

of 30,000km per hour,

it's caught on camera by a passing weather satellite.

Blink and you miss it.

Leaving the Artemis rocket behind,

the Orion spacecraft goes into orbit around the Moon.

From a distance of 400,000 kilometres,

it transmits images of the lunar surface

and the blue marble of the Earth emerging from behind the Moon.

December 18th - the World Cup final in Qatar.

It was billed as Messi versus Mbappe

and in an utterly thrilling final this afternoon,

Argentina are football's new world champions.

It's the culmination of a 12-year engineering project -

one of the most ambitious of the century.

Over the years, satellites captured seven new stadiums

rising from the desert, built by an army of migrant workers.

But it's not just stadiums being constructed.

An entire city called Lusail, housing 450,000,

was built from scratch.

It is the most expensive World Cup ever,

but also the most controversial, with widespread accusations

of the abuse of thousands of migrant workers.

In Ukraine, the winter has arrived.

In the south, there are celebrations

of recent advances by the Ukrainian army and their return to Kherson.

But in occupied Mariupol,

satellites show the Russians are reinforcing their presence.

New military buildings have sprung up.

A screen around the remains of the city's theatre

is a graphic reminder of civilian deaths

in Europe's most bloody conflict since World War II.

The toll of the brutal attack on Mariupol can be seen

at the cemetery, where 1,500 new graves have been dug.

As temperatures plummet,

both sides prepare for a long, frozen winter.

In December,

the Earth's ultimate light show,

the northern lights, or aurora borealis,

becomes visible in the northern skies.

Mesmerising from Earth,

it is awe-inspiring from space.

One of my flights, we were actually kind of low enough

that we were flying through the upper red tips of it,

and you could hear this crackling on the radio,

and it did actually seem like a sci-fi movie at that point.

These fantastical lights originate 130 million kilometres away

in the sun.

A specialist satellite called the Solar Dynamics Observatory

uses extreme ultraviolet sensors to capture the activity

of the sun's surface.

Solar flares can be seen emitting vast amounts of radiation

equivalent to a billion nuclear explosions.

Known as solar wind,

this radiation smashes into our upper atmosphere,

creating charged particles that emit light

and travel along the lines of the Earth's magnetic field.

I was full of awe, really,

to see something like that from such a different perspective.

Viewing the Earth from space,

it certainly transforms the way that you look and think about Earth.

You see everything as one interconnected system,

including all your family and friends

and everything you've ever known

is down there on this planet.

It's the place that we call home and we need to take care of it.

Subtitles by Red Bee Media