Contribution of LARES and geodetic satellites on environmental monitoring

LARES is the latest laser ranged geodetic satellite launched in orbit. It is an Italian Space Agency mission devoted mainly to test fundamental physics. However, it will be shown in the present paper that it will also contribute significantly to Earth science. The use of LARES together with the constellation of the other geodetic satellites will provide improvements in the measurement of the gravity field of Earth including its temporal variation measurements. In particular the latter carries signatures of mass redistribution due to several phenomena including global atmospheric and oceanic circulation, useful not only for monitoring global climate change but also to provide a means for climate model validation.