The tradition of admiring autumn foliage, known in the United States as leaf-peeping, now has an unexpected tool: Earth-observation satellites. According to NASA, a modern satellite makes it possible to pursue this ancient pastime in a whole new way, tracking from orbit where and when leaves change colour.

The scientific interest behind the effort is twofold. On one hand, leaf reddening responds to temperature, light and water stress, so its orbital mapping provides an indirect thermometer of the forest ecosystem. On the other, image time series allow successive autumn seasons to be compared and climate-related changes to be detected.

The available source does not specify the instrument used, its spatial resolution or spectral range, nor any quantitative results from the first campaign. NewsPhysics will expand on this information once NASA releases the technical data associated with the project.