CASE STUDY - SkyWatch

Leveraging Satellite Imagery For Reforestation

SkyWatch Team — Thu, 18 Jul 2024 23:04:45 +0000

Leveraging satellite imagery for reforestation starts with the act of environmental monitoring. Environmental monitoring often relies on satellite imagery due to its unobtrusive, cost-effective, and consistent analytical capabilities. Land preservation is a common motivation for organizations to practice environmental monitoring and, when it comes to forestry, satellite data has proven to be a valuable tool.

Forest health can be affected by various factors, such as disease and insect infestation. A common culprit for insect infestations in both European and North American trees is the bark beetle. These beetles consume the bark and other nutrients from the trees, depleting the tree’s defences within two to three days, ultimately leading to its death. The beetles repeat this process throughout the season, causing damage to the whole woodland ecosystem. The more trees this species feeds off, the more the beetles will return in future seasons—a big feat for a tiny bug.

To combat this species and to preserve our woodlands, organizations such as SPACETREES turn to satellite imagery to assess the damage and prevent the spread of bark beetles to preserve the woodland’s ecosystem.

SPACETREES is one of the leading companies in satellite image processing for the forestry sector, and they have made incredible strides in forest monitoring.

This piece is a case study on SPACETREES and how SkyWatch has supported their journey in preserving our Earth’s forests.

Who is SPACETREES?

Founded in 2018 in the Czech Republic, SPACETREES’ mission is to bring innovation and technology to forestry in Central Europe. They aim to be leaders in forest monitoring and want to make foresters’ jobs easier. Their goal is to support forest biodiversity, provide a holistic view of the forest ecosystem, and protect our precious forests for future generations. The founders of SPACETREES started as foresters who offered forest monitoring as a service and adopted unique tactics to track down bark beetles in infected trees caused by global warming. In time, this method switched from a more manual style to an automated style using satellite technology.

Choosing Between Dogs, Drones and Satellite Imagery

SPACETREES aimed to be efficient and accurate in the detection phase of their analysis. The quicker and more accurate the detection, the faster they could take action and mitigate the spread of disease in both private and public forest contracts. The key forest pests to combat are the bark beetles (Ips typographus) as they overpopulated and caused massive damage to the Norway Spruce Trees (Picea abies).

The first innovation to track infected trees was with human’s best friend, dogs

These specially trained detection dogs can locate an infested tree by smell. Although effective, this posed challenges when in difficult remote areas and increased safety risks for both the handlers and the dogs.

The next innovation was drones

Drones complemented the dog method as it increased its efficiency with their view from above. These trees can be detected based on the change in the spectral characteristics of the canopy using remote sensing. When a Norway Spruce tree is infested by the bark beetle, it gradually dies and loses chlorophyll in its needles. Remote sensing has become the key to fast and effective detection, but there is another limitation found with drones.

The drones could not manage the distance by hectares when the demand for SPACETREES services expanded.

Satellite data was the next innovation executed by SPACETREES and became the method that fit their needs.

Starting with 10m resolution data, the team concluded that if their services were going to be accurate, they had to use data with a minimum resolution of 50 cm/pixel. SPACETREES learned that forest estate owners and managers spend a significant amount of time in the office handling timber sales, selecting contractors, and overseeing forestry staff. For large forest estates, satellite monitoring is a valuable tool for these individuals as it enables them to gain an overview of the current state of the forest, identify potential threats to forest management, and plan effectively for the future.

Satellite monitoring can help in identifying illegal logging activities, verifying reported logging levels, and adapting the forest to future conditions in response to climate change. SPACETREES is dedicated to enhancing forest management efficiency and reducing the cost of forest inventory through continuous monitoring, making it the perfect choice for its operations and customers.

Why Choose SkyWatch?

In the beginning, when the company was really small with two founders, SkyWatch was the only provider willing to partner with SPACETREES and provide them with high-resolution data. In time, SPACETREES transitioned from 50cm data to 30cm data and are engaged in precision forest inventory monitoring and early detection of bark beetle-infested trees.

By partnering with SkyWatch to obtain 30cm data, SPACETREES can now focus on their core services, including:

Easily performing analyses on individual trees.
Detecting individual trees infested with bark beetles or dead trees, which tend to be localized, even in poorly accessible locations.
Automatic detection of cleared areas created after forest clearing, including calculation of the resulting area for reforestation.
Determine the height of individual trees from satellite data and count trees automatically, so it is possible to use this data as an inventory tool.

“Right from the start, SkyWatch provided us with excellent customer support and treated us as a full partner, even when our tasking was minimal. Throughout our cooperation, every request we made was addressed promptly and efficiently, leaving us with full confidence in SkyWatch for future projects.”

Petr Klapste

SPACETREES

Data Types and Ordering Frequency

Each forest property analyzed gets scanned at least once a year. Most commonly, satellites are tasked to get timely data on their specific AOIs. The “imaging season” for SPACETREES is typically from May to November. In 2023 SPACETREES had imaged and analyzed a forest area of 80,000 hectares in Central Europe.

The data type used in this analysis is typically multispectral satellite data by Pléiades NEO. These sensors offer high resolution, quality, and spectral consistency. Other data types include near-infrared, red-edge and, in certain cases, digital elevation data. This data, combined with the efficiency of machine learning and AI, is a powerful tool and resource that gives them the precision needed to take tactful action.

Scaling up with HUB

SPACETREES are also new customers for SkyWatch HUB. HUB is a turnkey management solution that allows organizations to manage your data within your organization. The team switched to HUB to help manage their operations as they began to scale.

"It started with the ability to adjust the angle of the satellite imagery during tasking, which is very important to us. The larger storage for our archive data will also relieve our server storage, with the ability to quickly preview large satellite data, which we will also use on our team. Undoubtedly, the better price for the data will help us improve the quality of our product, by being able to offer our customers higher-resolution data-based results for the same price."

Petr Klapste

Finding success with satellite imagery

We asked the SPACETREES team how their success story can influence others in similar industries. They believe that high-resolution satellite monitoring can revolutionize not only the forestry sector but also other industries. Organizations can react promptly to global climate change by using current imagery and tasking. For instance, the bark beetle is spreading rapidly across Europe, leading to extensive economic and ecological damage. Satellite monitoring enables SPACETREES to obtain information quickly from vast and inaccessible areas, where they can perform detailed analysis and devise further action. Advancements in technology have empowered SPACETREES to comprehend climate change better and take measures to mitigate it, ensuring a better world for future generations.

Visit SPACETREES to learn more about their services.

The post Leveraging Satellite Imagery For Reforestation appeared first on SkyWatch.

How Al Jazeera Leverages Satellite Imagery for Media Analysis

SkyWatch Team — Tue, 23 Apr 2024 22:43:00 +0000

Al Jazeera—which has its own fact-checking agency called Sanad which is committed to investigative journalism, verifying news , and OSINT news stories—recognizes the crucial role of research in providing accurate and comprehensive coverage.

There are often limitations on what types of satellite imagery can be acquired and posted publicly, which poses a challenge for many media companies and can deter them from using satellite imagery. To monitor world events and acquire weekly satellite imagery for thorough analysis, Al Jazeera‘s Sanad agency needed a cost-effective and reliable resource that could connect them with the right providers to acquire the data they need. SkyWatch supported Al Jazeera’s needs and helped create the competitive edge they were looking for.

Challenges

While Al Jazeera has a team dedicated to analyzing open-source intelligence, they still experienced challenges getting the data they needed. With a focus on collecting satellite imagery to verify geopolitical events, the team would examine events such as plane movements, shipments, and construction activities in different areas. However, they struggled to identify a cost-effective and accessible solution that would enable them to obtain imagery in specific areas promptly, while also following rules and regulations given by satellite imagery providers.

Why SkyWatch?

Al Jazeera explored various providers but found that SkyWatch was the most efficient and cost-effective. Unlike other providers requiring substantial upfront payments, SkyWatch’s pay-as-you-go model suited their needs, and the flexibility to purchase only the required area without minimum obligations was a key factor in choosing SkyWatch. Staying on top of budget was critical to the Sanad team, as they acquire imagery a few times a week at different resolutions.

Sanad confidently stated that the unwavering support of SkyWatch’s team was instrumental in resolving the challenges associated with searching for and acquiring imagery and providing a seamless experience. The support team’s responsiveness, and the management of unique requests such as connecting with direct providers to procure certain types of imagery that they couldn’t source on their own was a big asset for a media company like Al Jazeera.

“The customer service is top [notch], and the response rate is very good”

Sanad employee

Finally, SkyWatch’s partnerships with the world’s leading satellite imagery providers gave Al Jazeera’s Sanad team, the highest level of confidence in accomplishing their objectives.

Adopting EarthCache Enterprise

Collaborative Benefits of EarthCache Enterprise

EarthCache Enterprise helps organizations get more out of their remote sensing data by consolidating imagery procurement across the organization into a fully-indexed, enterprise-wide archive, and facilitates collaboration within non-technical team members with DirectView, which allows easy, web-based imagery sharing.

Al Jazeera has a specific task force for the technical elements and analysis to gather data for their journalists, but the journalists themselves are not necessarily technical experts.

EarthCache Enterprise’s multi-layered and multi-account structure simplifies data organization, and closes the gap between technical and non-technical team members, resulting in highly researched stories.

Consistent Monitoring

The ability to detect change and monitor areas of interest remotely becomes possible with satellite data.

Stronger Reporting

Using SkyWatch improves media organizations' ability to do detailed anaylsyis of new items.

Reliable Sources

Timely captures and accurate attributions increase reliability of and confidence in sources.

Using SkyWatch

As mentioned, Al Jazeera tasks satellites or purchases archival data every week, relying on high to very-high-resolution images (15-70 cm), typically in True Colour outputs, for their analyses. The ease of interpretation comes from using geographic information system (GIS) technology to further enhance the efficiency of their work. The API provided by SkyWatch creates a seamless experience for integrating with other technologies to analyse and interpret the data. Through detailed visuals and technical components, SkyWatch makes things easy and accessible.

SkyWatch’s API can be used to easily acquire and integrate data with other applications, including GIS software. For those who use Esri ArcGIS Pro, SkyWatch offers a custom add-in that enables users to purchase satellite imagery within ArcGIS Pro itself, thereby making accessing and analyzing satellite imagery easier and more accessible than ever before.

Influencing the Industry

Al Jazeera’s success story highlights the accessibility and reliability of satellite data, and serves as an inspiration for the media industry, where there is a growing demand for satellite imagery as a valuable tool for journalists seeking comprehensive information for analysis.

In conclusion, Al Jazeera’s strategic use of SkyWatch’s satellite imagery solutions has not only addressed their challenges, but also contributed significantly to their success in providing accurate and timely news coverage and in-depth investigative analysis, while managing their internal operations for technical and non-technical employees with ease.

To start using satellite imagery, create your SkyWatch account at https://skywatch.com/earthcache/get-access/

The post How Al Jazeera Leverages Satellite Imagery for Media Analysis appeared first on SkyWatch.

SkyWatch Partners With Pakistan-Based Farmdar

SkyWatch Team — Fri, 18 Nov 2022 19:32:33 +0000

Cost-effective access to Earth Observation data enables farmers to reliably predict crop yields to mitigate food insecurity worldwide.

KITCHENER, Ontario, November 21, 2022 (Newswire.com) – SkyWatch Space Applications Inc. (SkyWatch) announced today its collaboration with Farmdar, an agri-tech company based in Pakistan. Farmdar’s app allows farmers to monitor their land, increase productivity, reduce farming costs, and reduce waste through artificial intelligence (AI) and remote sensing technologies.

Food production is a complex science. With the use of technology and analysis to predict the best growing conditions, agriculture has come a long way. However, the food production process isn’t consistent or sustainable globally. Predicting crop yields is increasingly difficult due to climate change, often resulting in poor productivity and high waste. While access to insights and predictive analytics can mitigate these risks, these technologies have not historically been readily available, leading to increased food insecurity worldwide.

According to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), 2019 Global Rankings, Pakistan’s crop yield was only 60%, and 20% of the fruits and vegetables were wasted in the harvest. Analyzing rural Pakistan production was enough motivation for the Farmdar’s founders, Muhammed Bukhari, Ibrahim Bukhari, and Muzaffar Manghi, to take action.

Using SAR and medium-resolution data, Farmdar’s reports provide insights on crop classification, harvest monitoring, yield estimation, sowing classification, variety detection, NPK (Nitrogen, Phosphorous, Potassium) variable application reporting, water stress reporting, plant health, and stress reporting.

In its early stages, Farmdar found that using only high-resolution optical data was expensive. Farmdar needed to balance quality data outputs and affordability. Using a mix of high- and medium-resolution data on their platform, SkyWatch made accessing 3-5m data easy and cost-effective, supporting their needs as one of the market’s most affordable precision farming technologies.

Pricing was not the only factor that mattered to Farmdar in a partnership. Farmdar chose SkyWatch as a partner because of SkyWatch’s deep understanding of Farmdar’s work and strong customer success practices. As a result, Farmdar’s investment in earth observation data has seen a return for themselves and their customers.

“Any solution is only as good as the partner delivering it. There is a huge service aspect to technology, especially technology that is new to us, and the reassurance and confidence we get from a partner really is key,” says Muzzafar Manghi, Co-Founder & Chief Operating Officer at Farmdar. “I can’t emphasize enough how we’ve received that in spades from SkyWatch [and it] really encouraged us to do more with what SkyWatch offers.”

“We are thrilled to be supporting the Farmdar team as the data provider for their precision agriculture projects across both Pakistan and the world,” says Jordan Fox, SkyWatch’s Senior Director of Sales and Customer Success. “This partnership was ultimately born out of a shared vision regarding what we can accomplish together for producers and the communities that rely on them. Together, we are fighting for food security by making precision agriculture more accessible, efficient, and intuitive.”

The post SkyWatch Partners With Pakistan-Based Farmdar appeared first on SkyWatch.

Case Study with BAP Intel: From Hobbyist to Professional Analyst

SkyWatch Team — Thu, 11 Aug 2022 13:32:13 +0000

SkyWatch supports not only a wide range of businesses but, in some cases, we even support hobbyists.

Benjamin Pittet, founder of BAP Intel in Switzerland launched his career in private intelligence with a blog, X [formerly known as Twitter], and satellite data. Through our EXPLORE App [formerly known as EarthCache], and our amazing satellite imagery providers, we completed our mission. Together, we made commercial satellite imagery accessible to someone outside of the geospatial industry and solved a real-world problem.

Here is BAP Intel’s Story.

A Growing Interest in Geospatial Intelligence (GEOINT)

“I became interested in GEOINT through the work of many experts I followed on Twitter” (Pittet, 2022). Through social media and blogging, Pittet began collecting satellite imagery and practiced analyzing the imagery to detect movement on the Ukrainian border. When the Russian military began deployment, Pittet used EXPLORE to source imagery for object detection of archival imagery.

Beginning with free satellite data via the Sentinel Hub platform, Pittet documented and monitored the movement of the Russian military. But after a few analyses, Pittet switched to SkyWatch as the need for high definition images grew for this project and SkyWatch could provide them on a small budget.

Thread

Satellite image of the newly established Russian military camp south of Rechytsa in Belarus.

Tents, trucks and artillery have been deployed here.

1/ pic.twitter.com/lE9rIRHURN
— COUPSURE (@COUPSURE) February 5, 2022

The Technical Elements Used by BAP Intel

Temporal resolution: Due to a small budget, Pittet used Archival imagery with very low temporal resolution. In certain projects, there may be a need for a higher temporal resolution, but at the beginning of BAP Intel’s journey, low did the trick.

Spatial resolution: the use cases by BAP Intel typically required a resolution of 0.8m/pixel. Evidently having access to high resolution imagery was critical for most of Pittet’s work.

Spectral resolution: NIR bands were found to be useful in modifying the images for BAP Intel’s projects. In time, Pittet intends to strengthen his knowledge of different bands and how to use them for environmental research.

Latency: Low latency was very important to Pittet considering the rapidly changing environment he was monitoring.

Object detection: was the common use case type for BAP Intel’s project. Based on the technical elements provided by SkyWatch, BAP Intel met the need to monitor Ukrainian borders. Considering that Pittet was an amateur analyst, this is incredibly inspiring.

Through the use of high resolution imagery, close monitoring, and thorough documentation, this hobbyist became a professional. BAP Intel’s story has a great influence on other hobby analysts. “Since I started using your services, friends and other members of the OSINT and IMINT hobbyist community have started using SkyWatch to produce high-quality documents.”- Pittet, 2022

BAP Intel’s story is unique and demonstrates one of the many uses for satellite imagery. From a hobbyist to a professional analyst we are proud to support Pittet’s aspirations.

Start searching for satellite imagery with EXPLORE.

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How an Intelligence company uses SkyWatch EarthCache

SkyWatch Team — Thu, 28 Apr 2022 17:38:51 +0000

ShadowBreak is an Intelligence consultancy company that focuses on layering data from a variety of sources to provide multi-Intelligence analysis for their military, governmental, and corporate clients.

Both their solutions, ReconLink and TacSight, deliver critical insight for decision makers on vital security issues such as regional conflicts, foreign military combat capabilities, general military intelligence assessments and intelligence collaboration.

How ShadowBreak uses satellite data

With ReconLink, ShadowBreak customers can access recent imagery and automatically request new images over a certain area. In order to enable customers to request tasking data, the development team at ShadowBreak built a simple integration between ReconLink and the EarthCache API. Thanks to EarthCache, ShadowBreak was able to build this new feature for their customers in less than a few weeks.

A smooth integration was key to the success of the project

For the team at ShadowBreak the interaction needed to be as smooth as possible for their customers. Within their platform, users are able to check their preferred location for archive data, look at the path of satellites to plan for future requests and, with one click of the button, place a tasking order for future satellite imagery to be collected and delivered. That’s when SkyWatch came into play. Thanks to EarthCache, a platform that allows users to automatically request data from satellite imagery providers, ShadowBreak’s customers can place tasking orders with minimal friction.

Aggregation is a nice perk

“For us, it doesn’t really matter where we get our data”, said Samuel Cardillo, CEO of ShadowBreak. However, Cardillo noted it can be time-consuming to sign new deals with the current satellite imagery providers and this diverts resources away from Development and Operations. By integrating EarthCache into their ReconLink platform, ShadowBreak was able to add new datasets to their current offering with just a few lines of code.

This allowed Cardillo and his team to focus on building newer features, such as asset detection capabilities, measurement tools, layering information on military assets and on building a collaborative way for their TacSight users to share geospatial information across teams.

Favourite feature: cropped results

“Everything is amazingly cropped to fit the AOI we set” commented Cardillo. “I was amazed the first time I tried it. I am still amazed whenever I see an image perfectly cropped to my polygon.” Being able to deliver images cropped to the pixel help reduce the size of the file EarthCache users need to download, which makes it easier and less costly for developers to ingest and process. Being able to save even a couple of seconds between order and delivery is key to delivering a great customer experience, both for ShadowBreak and for SkyWatch.

ABOUT SHADOWBREAK

Established in London, UK

Founded in 2019

Development team size: 3

www.shadowbreakintl.com

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How a Precision Agriculture Application Uses SkyWatch EarthCache

SkyWatch Team — Thu, 28 Apr 2022 17:36:49 +0000

CropSafe is a mobile application that helps farmers monitor the growth of their crops. CropSafe gives farmers information on what is happening in their fields to help them improve their yields, thanks to a combination of up-to-date satellite imagery, sensor data, and machine learning.

The application collects data from a variety of sources, including satellite data and crop health data, and distills it down into simple, actionable insights for farmers. These insights are then sent to CropSafe users via SMS or app notifications, giving them updates on the health of their farms.

In the past, CropSafe has been focusing on farmers in Ireland and the UK but they are currently experiencing growth in the North American market.

How CropSafe uses satellite data

The CropSafe team brings in a lot of satellite imagery from SkyWatch EarthCache, including open, low resolution satellite data, as well as high resolution data from Planet Labs’ PlanetScope and SIIS’ Kompsat-3. Thanks to the SkyWatch platform, all of these data sources are available from the same API endpoint. CropSafe also collects data from additional sources, including data related to healthy, and unhealthy, plant growth and ground sensor data.

By merging all of these datasets together, standardizing them, and feeding the normalized data to their algorithms, the CropSafe team is able to send farmers insights about any inconsistencies they might see within their crops.

Integrating data from multiple sources

The CropSafe team built a variety of processes and tools to integrate these datasets together cohesively in order to accurately predict crop growth for farmers. Rather than waste any more development cycles on importing and getting satellite data ‘analysis-ready’, CropSafe decided to rely on SkyWatch.

According to John McElhone, CEO and co-founder of CropSafe, “using EarthCache sped up our processes quite a lot. We used to order satellite imagery manually. Thanks to EarthCache’s API, our productivity went up 10x.”

Generating a feedback loop

Built into the CropSafe app, is the ability for farmers to take a picture of their crop and send it to the team. Additionally, farmers can request a satellite to be tasked to come and take an updated aerial image of their farm. By integrating with EarthCache, the CropSafe team was able to easily introduce “automated satellite tasking” as a new feature in their application.

By merging information collected for their customers, through on-the-ground pictures of crops, as well as satellite images, the team was able to create a feedback loop to help better identify diseases on crops. As their database of crop information grows, CropSafe is able to provide accurate insights at even faster rates to their customers.

Favourite feature: Archive preview and ‘no minimums’

McElhone acknowledges it was “quite complicated to get satellite data before EarthCache”. Satellite data providers often require customers to purchase a lot of data at once, sometimes more than $10,000 per order. SkyWatch, on the other hand, has no minimum purchase for most datasets, which makes it an ideal solution for start-ups and companies starting with satellite data monitoring.

Another one of McElhone’s favourite features is the option to preview imagery before purchase for high resolution archive data. The CEO mentioned the company in the past had to occasionally send orders back to previous suppliers when the data delivered wasn’t what they needed. Between the extensive filtering options available in EarthCache and the newly rolled-out Archive Preview feature, CropSafe’s development team is extremely pleased with the quality of the data they purchase through EarthCache so far. “I had never seen an Archive Preview feature with commercial imagery before”, commented McElhone.

ABOUT CROPSAFE

Established in Belfast, Ireland

Founded in 2018

Development team size: 5

www.cropsafe.io

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Design and Implement Sustainability Strategies With Satellite Data

SkyWatch Team — Thu, 28 Apr 2022 17:33:06 +0000

52impact brings spatial (satellite, aerial, and drone) information to markets who haven’t been using these types of datasets. The company is working with decision makers in industries who haven’t previously worked with geospatial data. The group leans heavily on close customer relations and data visualization to help bridge the gap between the images and the insights.

52impact is headquartered in the Netherlands and currently focuses on water risks, waste management, and sustainable business practices, especially in the agriculture and forestry sector.

How 52impact uses satellite data

Thijs Perenboom, Technical Project Lead – Data Processing & Data Science at 52impact walked us through how the company finds actionable insights using geospatial data to help companies implement new sustainable policies and improve results.

Thijs shared a project with SkyWatch that the team at 52impact recently worked on around waste management. Their new solution, GreySat, provides countries and regions with up-to-date information about waste generation and waste dumps. They use a combination of modelling, statistical data, and satellite imagery to make accurate predictions about waste development at the regional level.

As the team found out, many of the currently available open datasets around waste dump locations are incomplete. By merging several satellite datasets they were able to extract the ‘spectral profiling’ of new dumpsites and infer where unmarked sites were located. “With an additional layer of very high-resolution satellite data, we even found information about waste distribution and which possible materials could be present in the landfills”, mentioned Thijs.

When asked about why the team chose satellite data over drones or aerial maps, Thijs explained that “satellite data is much more efficient if you are looking at large areas. It is also significantly faster and less expensive. In less than a few weeks, we have analyzed 4 different countries in South America.”

Agroforestry Portal (for the Dutch company Verstegen Spices & Sauces) showing agroforestry development in Bangka (Indonesia). Dashboard is accessible at https://agroforestrybangka.verstegen.nl

Aggregation is the name of the game

52impact works with a variety of geospatial and non-geospatial datasets. Finding a satellite data platform that offered access to multiple datasets at once, like EarthCache, helped simplify their operations. They primarily use satellite data for large-scale projects. They also rely on infrared data for material, soil types, and vegetation identification, which several satellite sensors provide on top of the visible light bands. The team at 52impact primarily uses medium resolution open satellite datasets, like Landsat-8 and Sentinel-2, as well as high resolution commercial data such as Planetscope and very high resolution imagery like Kompsat-3A and SkySat, which they use to monitor specific areas of interest. “We like to mix and match, combining medium, high, and very high resolution imagery throughout the year” commented Thijs.

For many companies like 52impact, flexibility around resolution allows teams to increase the amount of data they can use, offer more frequent revisits, while also helping to keep data purchasing costs down.

GreySat Waste Portal, showcasing open waste dumps in Mexico

Self-serve access to satellite data

“I really like the interface. I can log in or use the API anytime I want and order data. In just one click you can order an image. It’s pretty cool” recalls Thijs.

Before using EarthCache, Thijs would spend time negotiating contracts to purchase imagery, sometimes up to 8 months ahead of the project. Also, the team was responsible for storing the data once it arrived. Whereas all data accessed through EarthCache is already stored in AWS for easy access.

“We purchased commercial data in the past and there were no online portals. You had to call in and send a shapefile. We are looking to move most of our satellite data workflows to EarthCache in the future. We already use it anytime we need tasking (future data)”, Thijs continued. “I know a lot of other satellite data buyers are looking for alternatives like EarthCache.”

Waste risk management dashboard 360blue, showcasing water stress information in Brazil

Favourite feature: The Data Explorer

“I really like the Data Explorer. I use it a lot. Mostly to check what data is available for our clients when we discuss upcoming projects.” noted Thijs.

The Explorer view in EarthCache allows developers to preview archive imagery from all data partners over their area of interest over any period of time. This gives them a good sense of how frequently an area is captured already and whether or not the team will need to supplement archive data with tasking data for the project. This also helps get a sense of how frequently an area is covered by clouds throughout the course of a year.

ABOUT 52IMPACT

Established in Rotterdam, Netherlands

Founded in 2017

Development team size: 7 people

https://52impact.nl

The post Design and Implement Sustainability Strategies With Satellite Data appeared first on SkyWatch.

How an infrastructure company uses satellite data

SkyWatch Team — Thu, 28 Apr 2022 17:21:48 +0000

LiveEO uses satellite imagery to provide innovative infrastructure monitoring in the verticals railway, electricity, and pipelines and empowers the operators to save in operational expenses by observing dangers from vegetation, height changes and third party interactions along the network.

How LiveEO uses satellite data

Sven Przywarra, LiveEO’s co-founder explained that the company focuses on generating insights from Earth observation data through artificial intelligence for their customers. Their application is designed as an ‘Information-as-a-Service’ platform for operators of large-scale infrastructure networks, such as electricity, oil and gas, and railways. Sven and his team use a combination of high and medium resolution satellite data to offer cost-efficient asset monitoring over the millions of km2 of pipelines, railways, etc.

Vegetation outgrowth near electricity lines, fallens trees on train tracks, or even people digging too close to buried pipelines can create costly damages to infrastructure. LiveEO monitors assets, searching for external threats, such as vegetation encroachment or third-party interactions, and notify their clients of potential issues, helping operators maintain their network more efficiently.

Thanks to a combination of artificial intelligence and an integration with EarthCache, which offers on-demand access to high resolution satellite imagery, LiveEO can now update their customers about the health of their infrastructure in less than 48h and for a fraction of what it would cost to send a team on site or commission a plane, a helicopter, or a drone.

We needed API access to the data

“Satellite data is the starting point of everything we do. We translate raw satellite imagery made available for example by EarthCache, analyze it with our machine-learning algorithms, and send the processed geospatial data directly into our web app, mobile app or via our API into the operating systems of our customers”, explained Sven.

“When combined with additional data sources such as digital terrain models (DTM), digital surface models (DSM), weather data, and even proprietary customer data, we can use satellite data for risk prediction and risk modelling for our enterprise clients,” continued Sven. Which is why it was crucial to find an Earth observation data provider with a strong API, to help the developers at LiveEO easily access the data sources they need and quickly integrate them into their workflows.

SkyWatch’s easy EarthCache API saved us a lot of time and effort when we were looking at adding new sources of satellite data into our application, and we are really happy about the simple and efficient design of their interfaces.”

Multiple data sources through one endpoint

“Prior to EarthCache and SkyWatch, we had a hard time getting satellite data from some of the operators directly. Sometimes we couldn’t get a hold of their commercial teams. Sometimes we had issues with their API, making it difficult to get data from one provider, let alone multiple providers, each with a different API. In multiple cases it was easier with EarthCache: one platform, one API, harmonized interface. Now we can focus on building analytics and processing the data rather than how we get the data.”

Sven also mentioned his development team no longer has to worry about contractual obligations and large minimum purchases. With the ability to buy Earth observation data by the km2, a number of business use cases, such as infrastructure monitoring that were previously cost-prohibitive become accessible. “It’s the greatest advantage of your platform,” finished Sven.

https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5a32e5c3fe54ef2bdccf2e9b/1600882700079-D2O0KVU2WKL8VQ92CG3V/LiveEO+infrastructure+monitoring+vegetation+encroachment+satellite.png?format=1500w

Favourite feature: Ease of use.

“Everything is in one place – we can task, we can archive, we can download all of the data”. Sven also mentioned how useful the data preview feature was for the team, especially when it comes to prototyping new offerings. “I think my favourite feature was the ease of use. It was possible to build an integration in a short amount of time.”

ABOUT LIVEEO

Established in Berlin, Germany

Founded in 2016

Development team size: 17 developers

www.live-eo.com

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How an Artificial Intelligence company uses satellite data

SkyWatch Team — Thu, 28 Apr 2022 17:18:46 +0000

Picterra is a self-serve platform enabling businesses to autonomously extract intelligence & analytics from satellite, aerial, and drone imagery. It comes with a ready-to-use IT infrastructure: in a few clicks, it’s possible to process terabytes of imagery with Picterra’s auto-scaling, GPU-enabled infrastructure. With Picterra, a machine learning model can be built in less than 30 minutes and no coding skills are required from our users.

How Picterra uses satellite data

Picterra’s customers come from various industries: Geospatial, Civil Engineering, Oil & Gas, Transportation, Agriculture & Forestry, IT services, Humanitarian, just to name the most common. Many of them work as geospatial intelligence service providers, drone operators, monitoring & inspection providers, GIS consultants. Their projects may be very different but what they all have in common is a need for relevant imagery – drone, aerial, and satellite. Once they upload the imagery, users can start building machine learning models to extract actionable insights from geospatial data by detecting various objects and patterns. This tutorial shows the process in a nutshell: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=usBNR6Hbfgo

A screenshot of the Picterra platform showing a basemap with options to purchase satellite imagery over a selected area, thanks to Picterra’s partnership with SkyWatch.

Simplifying access to Earth observation data for our users

“Many of our users rely on satellite imagery for monitoring purposes: evaluating the progress of a construction site, monitoring road traffic, or detecting changes in forests are all real-life examples where being able to obtain regular images is incredibly important”, mentioned Stéphane Restani, Senior Software Engineer at Picterra

“In the past, acquiring satellite data was always a very manual process with lengthy emails back-and-forth. The process also required some knowledge about the realm of satellite data and how to search through the various providers”, continued Stéphane.

“Having a single point of entry to search for and buy images on all major satellite imagery providers was incredibly helpful in enabling our users get access to the data they need. Since we are offering a SaaS platform, EarthCache enables us to automate and streamline most of the satellite data acquisition pipeline which helps lower costs, reduce friction for the users and improve timely delivery of satellite data.“

Favourite feature: Satellite tasking, on-demand.

“Being able to task a satellite to capture images over a repeating period of time enables a whole new field of possibilities. Our users can now get up to daily updates on their area of interest, and have our ML models crunch the data into actionable insights.”

ABOUT PICTERRA

Established in Lausanne, Switzerland

Founded in 2016

Development team size: 5

www.picterra.ch

The post How an Artificial Intelligence company uses satellite data appeared first on SkyWatch.

SkyWatch provides Orbital Eye with an efficient alternative to helicopter monitoring

SkyWatch Team — Thu, 28 Apr 2022 09:59:55 +0000

Orbital Eye monitors critical infrastructure, such as oil and gas pipelines, for third-party interferences, such as construction work and excavations. Traditionally, oil and gas companies used helicopters to monitor their pipelines.

Orbital Eye was founded with the vision that traditional aerial inspection methods based on helicopters could be replaced by satellite observation. Orbital Eye’s platform, CoSMiC-EYE, provides the capability to automatically process thousands of square kilometres of radar and optical satellite images on a daily basis, in order to map anomalies, events, or changes to assets and infrastructure.

For Orbital Eye, it was an easy decision to move towards a programmatic solution to access Earth Observation data. Prior to working with SkyWatch, Orbital Eye was acquiring the satellite data they needed via a search catalogue and ordering images by mail. This process was too labour-intensive, and the turnaround times on manual imagery acquisition were too long to effectively serve their customers, and they quickly recognized that they needed a more programmatic solution to access data.

Today, programmatic Earth observation data acquisition is a capability that operates autonomously within the Orbital Eye solution, and the machine-to-machine (M2M) infrastructure allows Orbital Eye to source images at scale, with little human supervision or interaction.

“Orbital Eye combines SAR data with high-resolution optical data,” says Sven van Haver, CEO at Orbital Eye. “It’s much more efficient than aerial monitoring via helicopter, but up until 2016, when we introduced our SAR-based services, that had been the status quo for the oil and gas industry. The tipping point for Orbital Eye happened when customers could actually see what was going on around their pipeline from behind their desk in a high-res image, instead of only receiving alerts based on radar data, and we integrated optical data into our solution in 2018.”

As a SkyWatch partner, Orbital Eye also uses the EarthCache API to build out custom solutions for their customers. With the proprietary custom infrastructure for quality assurance and service validation, Orbital Eye offers robust end-to-end monitoring solutions for oil and gas pipelines.

“Having machine-to-machine (M2M) capabilities to source high-res optical data, both from archive as well as direct tasking, is a prerequisite for the success of our solutions,” says van Haver. “In our business, the value of imagery decreases rapidly with the number of days since collection and it is exactly this time-to-delivery that the M2M integration with EarthCache minimizes, allowing us to bring maximum value to our customers.”

Data diversity is a key to success

SkyWatch’s data aggregation model works well for Orbital Eye, who measures the average time between initial event detection and delivery of a high-resolution satellite image as a KPI for their customers.

“If you are in frequent need of high-resolution satellite imagery, but do not know the exact location weeks in advance, then never trust a single satellite imagery provider to be your exclusive supplier,” says van Haver. “It’s better to invest in a data integrator like SkyWatch, and trust them to be your gateway into as many satellite providers as possible. More supply allows us to maximize the fulfillment of our data needs.”

About Orbital Eye

Orbital Eye provides monitoring and inspection services for oil and gas pipelines. The CoSMiC -EYE solution delivers cost-effective, highly accurate, and up-to-date information on what has changed, where, and when in your Area of Interest or Right of Way. Alerts are automatically uploaded and reported to inspectors, asset managers, or HSE officers, together with context information, offering maximum situational awareness. Orbital Eye’s Earth observation-based monitoring solutions are non-intrusive, intrinsically safe, and sustainable.

About SkyWatch EarthCache

SkyWatch provides the simplest way to get Earth observation data for software applications, via the EarthCache platform. EarthCache aggregates and normalizes data from a network of industry-leading data partners, so development teams don’t need to spend months integrating disparate systems. All data available through EarthCache is sent pre-processed and clipped to custom specifications for faster ingestion.

The powerful and easy-to-use EarthCache API allows developers to programmatically search and request Earth observation data, monitor areas of interest, and minimize the time-to-delivery of new data.

The post SkyWatch provides Orbital Eye with an efficient alternative to helicopter monitoring appeared first on SkyWatch.