File:The Dawson-Lambton penguin colony, Antarctica.jpg

English: Emperor penguins are birds that nest in Antarctica. Unfortunately, penguin’s colonies are located in areas susceptible to the effects of climate change. In 2016, the Halley Bay colony, located on the edge of the Brunt Ice Shelf, was destroyed by the collapse of part of the ice shelf, and, according to British Antarctic Survey (BAS) researchers, part of the surviving penguins joined another colony, the Dawson-Lambton colony. Using the “follow the poo” proxy, which enables to visualise organic material against a background of snow and ice, we are able to monitor the whereabouts of these penguin colonies. This image, acquired by one of the Copernicus Sentinel-2 satellites on 25 September 2020, which is the first of the 2020 season, shows the status of the Dawson-Lambton colony: comparing the latest imagery with archive images from 2018, shows that the population of the colony seems to have significantly reduced in 2020. Data retrieved by Copernicus Sentinel missions allows to study fragile Antarctic ecosystems. For example, in Antarctica there are at least 61 colonies of emperor penguins, of which 11 were discovered in the summer of 2019 thanks to the use of Copernicus Sentinel-2 data.