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Queensland is home to some of the earth’s most delicate ecosystems including the Great Barrier Reef. These sensitive 1.8 million square kilometers are the responsibility of Queensland’s Department of Natural Resources and Mines to manage, and taking on this task has been radically modernized with help from geospatial analysis experts, Geoplex, equipped with recent and rich Planet data.

Queensland is home to nearly 5 million citizens and some of the earth’s most delicate ecosystems. At 1.8 million square kilometers, the region contains rare earth resources, unique biodiversity and sensitive coastlines neighbouring the Great Barrier Reef.

Protecting this vast natural landscape is the challenge of Queensland’s Department of Natural Resources and Mines to manage. To complement field practices, the DNRM turned to satellite imagery to monitor regions of the state.

Bringing recency and reliability to satellite imaging

For years, the DNRM relied on annual satellite imagery up dates of large regions of the state, often delivered via external hard drive for processing. This led to delays in image analysis, creating critical gaps in information and lags in time-sensitive responses by resource managers. The department recognized the potential to modernize their approach to satellite imaging as a primary tool for monitoring resources, and turned to mapping and GIS specialists Geoplex for help.

“When the DNRM contract came up for renewal, we knew we could offer the department a solution that focused more on timely delivery of content,” says Nigel Conolly, sales and marketing manager at Geoplex.
To build timely and accessible solutions Geoplex looked to Planet’ high-cadence imaging and cloud-based delivery. Having consistent and current satellite imagery can greatly improve DNRM’s land management practices; Planet’s automated data pipeline offered a fast, reliable cloud infrastructure to the department, and proved recent and complete coverages of the entire state.

“This solution would provide the department with current information, empowering them to make more informed decisions,” states Conolly.

Monitoring to understand and protect interconnected ecosystems


Monitoring runoff sediments load in rivers provides data to those working to improve coastal water quality and reef health. Image captured May 6, 2017.

Planet imaging and Geoplex analysis revealed new capabilities in environmental monitoring and protection for Queensland. For example, connecting rainfall data in key catchment areas and tracking uplands vegetation could help managers and scientists understand the connection between land and coastal reef health.

In instances of extreme events, Planet data is also helping the DNRM respond. This May 2017 marked record flooding of Rockhampton, Queensland in the wake of Cyclone Debbie. With daily imaging available before, during and after the flood surge, the DNRM could monitor impacts to natural and urban environments, and work with authorities to manage responses to the flood. Planet enabled the DNRM to make daily imagery available to the public through the Disaster Data program to help coordinate relief efforts.

With more timely information, the DNRM is able to actively respond to and prevent land degradation activities. Land clearing that previously had gone undetected could be identified and documented providing Queensland’s DNRM the information to formally engage property owners and deter future incursion of environmentally protected areas. Creating a comprehensive and current picture of the state helps Queensland understand and preserve the complex balances of its unique natural environment.

Planet imagery is bringing new capabilities to the DNRM and other Queensland government agencies. Steve Jacoby, Executive Director, Land & Spatial Information, DNRM, says “We are very excited to be working with daily imagery over Queensland that DNRM has been able to acquire through the Planet platform. The access to high quality, daily imagery for use by all government agencies under this arrangement sets a new benchmark that we expect will have far-reaching benefits for the state.”

Geoplex is currently building tools on Planet API and believes their work with Planet data will serve to disrupt land management practices for government ministries moving forward. “This project is an example of how innovation pays off,” says Conolly. “Working with Planet, we’re helping the Queensland government adopt technology that will take them into the future, with the flexibility to deal with what’s ahead.”

Read the full story of the Geoplex and Planet project in Queensland.

June 14, 2017. Planet’s mission to image Earth’s entire landmass everyday expands to the open sea. With approximately 70% of the planet covered by oceans, Planet is expanding its capabilities to explore hundreds of kilometres offshore to collect key maritime insights.

Since its founding back in 2010, Planet’s worked to build a constellation capable of imaging the Earth’s entire landmass every day, something we are on track to accomplish following our launch of 88 satellites in February. But Planet’s “ line-scanner” constellation can image more than just land. Approximately 70% of the Earth’s surface is actually water, so there’s an amazing opportunity for us to look at our oceans and seas.

Planet’s Doves have long had the capability to image out into open waters—in fact our standard operating procedure is to continue capturing imagery several kilometers offshore—but it’s proven tricky to georeference them precisely without nearby reference points. With recent upgrades on our newest satellite design, coupled with the advanced automation techniques in our image processing pipeline, we are now able to geolocate individual open water scenes within an acceptable margin of error, even hundreds of kilometers out to sea.

With this new capability, Planet will selectively turn on its cameras to take a closer look at certain maritime areas. In speaking with our users, we know that there is a lot of activity on the high seas that may otherwise go unnoticed, such as illegal fishing or trade in contraband. There is also interest in being able to quantify the type and number of ships that choose not to broadcast Automatic Identification System status or intentionally misreport their locations.

Planet’s unique monitoring constellation ensures that we can always monitor open waters without the need for tasking. This is particularly useful in areas which do not typically see extensive maritime traffic, such as off the North Korean coast in the Sea of Japan, where we spotted a group of ships heading west out of the port of Wonsan.

Image: May 17, 2017 ©Planet

In other areas, the density of ships can be quite remarkable. In one strip from the 17th of May, 2017, we can see that the passage between the Ryukyu Islands of Japan and the Chinese mainland is a hive of activity.

Long wakes and smoke trails of ships as they travel:

Image: May 17, 2017 ©Planet

Planet are currently rolling out a limited engagement program with select Planet customers and will begin broadly selling our Open Water monitoring program in fall of 2017.

More information

As a key member of Planet’s Application Developer Program, Dattabot uses big data analytics as a way of generating new insights for smallholder farmers and is help to make practices more efficient and yields more predictable, helping growers gain access to credit.

Farmers are often at the mercy of the elements. A wetter-than-usual growing season, for example, could provide a hospitable environment for crop diseases that significantly impact yields. Changes in crop conditions over time could signal near-term production booms or long-term problems.

For Indonesian farmers, the uncertainty of weather patterns, soil conditions, and disease outbreaks can create an additional challenge: many can’t secure loans at reasonable rates. “Financial institutions are reluctant to provide financing to small farmers who often cannot reliably predict crop yields,” explains Dina Kosasih, agriculture vertical lead at Jakarta-based data analytics company Dattabot. “Many of these farmers end up resorting to sources that provide credit at exorbitant rates.”

Dattabot is helping to change that. As a key member of Planet’s Application Developer Program, Dattabot uses big data analytics as a way of generating new insights for farmers as well as for organizations in consumer goods, government, and financial services.

Assisting farmers required Dattabot to analyze data on crops and soil captured from above. At first, Dattabot considered using drones to collect images of farms and record sensor readings. But these relatively low-flying devices took too long to cover even small farms and were too frequently grounded due to poor weather.
To overcome these obstacles to visualizing the ground, Dattabot decided to use data collected from space.


Smallholder fields in Bali

Dattabot utilizes high-frequency satellite imaging from Planet

Dattabot wanted to capture images from larger areas of farmland, faster, to keep costs under control. At the same time, the company wanted to collect images at a greater frequency and consistency than a drone could manage. “We needed high-frequency imaging to have the best chance of getting clear, cloud-free shots of farms,” says Kosasih. High-frequency imaging can also help anticipate crop changes that might signal disease, pests, or soil problems.

The Dattabot team decided to work with Planet. We are able to capture high-frequency and high-resolution images, and deliver continuous data that is ready for analysis. “Planet is unique in delivering data from its satellites directly to the cloud, and we can access that critical information within 24 hours,” says Kosasih.

Farmers—and their lenders—can better anticipate the future

By producing new insights from satellite data that we collect and deliver, Dattabot is helping to make a huge difference in the lives of farmers. Through its analysis, Dattabot can provide farmers with agricultural recommendations that improve their crop yields.

At the same time, better information is expected to give farmers easier access to credit. The Dattabot team anticipates that financial institutions will have the confidence they need to lend money to small farmers.
To help increase the odds of securing loans, Dattabot is also partnering with organizations that promote microfinance. Connecting small farmers with small-scale lenders could help ensure more farmers receive the financial support they need—not just to survive but to flourish.

More information
Download the success story in PDF

In the frame of this ESA Integrated Applications Promotion (IAP) project, Eurosense targets to turn the outcome of research in salt karst hazards assessment in the Dead Sea into a full-operational service for decision makers, land planners and hotel managers.

The contribution of Sentinel-1 radar imagery to the service will be essential to do so. The results, combined with previous research achievements, will be communicated towards potential end-users which include the Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities of Jordan, Zara Investment Holding and the Holiday Inn resort Dead Sea.

Overall benefit for the human collectivities:

The aim of the project is to improve the decision making process taking place in economic valorization projects. Systematic use of remote sensing technologies is meant to guarantee the security of major tourism infrastructures such as hotels, roads, bridges, dams and pipelines in salt karst terrain that are at high risk of sinkholes, subsidence and landslides. These threats have increasingly become a major geo-hazard in many areas around the world, especially in the Mediterranean basin.

Depending on the results of this proof of concept study, the technical service and the commercial approach developed in the Jordanian Dead Sea area will afterwards be extended for the assessment of tourism project sustainability in karst areas in the whole Mediterranean region.


Landslide at the Holiday Inn front beach, Dead Sea, Jordan.

Link to EUROSENSE Website

Monitoring the evolution of wars and conflicts, the damage they produce to the environment, heritage sites and infrastructures, as well as the extent of the humanitarian crises to which they lead can be a complicated task, given the danger that being on-site poses.

Satellite imagery is a key way to both monitor and map a conflict’s evolution and impact, without the risks and costs associated with having people on-site. It allows users to capture reliable imagery, and ensures accurate and timely monitoring over sites located in areas affected by ongoing threats, where it’s otherwise difficult to get up to date information and verify potential damage.

Deimos Imaging has been monitoring and mapping the conflict in and around Mosul since its beginning using its two satellites: the medium resolution Deimos-1 and the very-high resolution Deimos-2. Both satellites operate continuously, with a global network of five ground station ensuring contact with each of them every orbit to command and download data every 90 minutes (see ‘Satellite capabilities’).

In this study, a synergistic tipping and queuing has been carried out, collecting information and coordinating activities between Deimos Imaging’s sensors. Thanks to its wide swath and high revisit time, Deimos-1 spotted where the main developments were going on in Mosul and its surroundings; then, this information was used to task the very-high-resolution Deimos-2 over the identified areas to get much more detailed imagery.
The ability to record a sequence of images over time at different spatial resolution and the use of the tipping and queuing technique enabled the tracking and capture of the most relevant developments in Mosul’s conflict and its dynamics, both in context and in detail.

Moreover, the expansion of camps for refugees and internally displaced people (IDP), such as the one in Hammam al-Alil 25km south of Mosul was monitored, as were the evolution of the oil fires in Qayyarah and the changes in the agricultural production in the Nineveh region.

Thus, Deimos Imaging’s imagery helped with the assessment of the humanitarian, economic and environmental impact of this conflict, providing data to decision-makers in a wide range of areas, from NGOs and international organisations to local institutions promoting precision agriculture for the country’s recovery post-conflict.

The impact on agriculture

The Nineveh province was once Iraq’s breadbasket, accounting for almost half the country’s overall wheat supply. However, the ongoing conflict is jeopardising the agricultural production, mainly in the regions of the Nineveh, Kirkuk and Salahuddin governorates in Iraq. Deimos Imaging tasked both Deimos-1 and Deimos-2 satellites on the Nineveh Governorate in Iraq. The bands of Deimos-1 (RG, NIR) and Deimos-2 (RGB, NIR) have been especially designed for monitoring vegetation. In particular, they provide analytic-ready imagery, supplying the information needed for vegetation indices calculations. These provide an indication of the relative density and health of vegetation for each pixel of Deimos-1 and Deimos-2 imagery. In addition, the satellites’ high temporal resolution capacity ensures data is acquired systematically, enabling consistent monitoring and analysis. In general, this high frequency and high-resolution data can be used to supply a powerful operational service for precision agriculture, with an accurate multitemporal overlay at pixel level. This can empower precision agriculture users at different stages: planning; in-season practices and yield.


Deimos-1 image, Agriculture in the Nineveh region, Iraq


Deimos-2 image, Agriculture in the Nineveh region, Iraq

The humanitarian impact

Satellite imagery plays an increasingly important role in monitoring and measuring humanitarian crises. It serves to support decision-making and manage humanitarian aid and response through, for instance, the monitoring of changes in refugee IDP camps. Deimos-2 data helped to detect the evolution of the refugee camp at Hammam Al-Alil, around 25km south of Mosul. The multitemporal analysis of Deimos-2 imagery provided reliable information to measure the camp’s growth and density over time, allowing an estimate of the population sheltered there. Accurate multitemporal analysis showed that the number of tents increased from 3,738 on February 19 to 8,136 on April 22. Therefore, the camp doubled its size in just two months. Given that, on average, six people are accommodated in each tent, the number of people hosted in the camp increased from around 22,500 to almost 50,000 between February 19 to April 22. The image captured on April 22 also shows a part of the camp still under construction, which enables a forecast of future occupancy of almost 56,000 people –a number that matches the capacity expectations of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, which is responsible for managing and developing this camp.


Deimos-2 images, Hammam al Alil camp, captured on February 19 (left) and April 22 (right), 2017

On 24 June 2017, a massive landslide hit a village in Maoxian county in Sichuan province, south-western China, destroying 40 homes and killing dozens of people. Authorities suggest the event was triggered by prevailing heavy rains.

TRE ALTAMIRA has processed the entire archive of 45 Sentinel-1 satellite radar scenes acquired since October 2014 over the Maoxian area in less than 3 hours since reception of the last image. This has been achieved using our SqueeSAR™ processing chain in combination with in-house big-data computing power and SAR expertise.

Significantly, SqueeSAR™ measurements reveal clear, precursory movements of the ground months before the landslide occurred, meaning that, if routinely monitored, there could have been more warning of the potential threat. Results also highlight other areas undergoing deformation.


SqueeSAR™ measurements over the Maoxian county. Dataset: Sentinel-1, descending geometry. Acquisition period: October 2014 – June 2017. Background image: Google Earth.


SqueeSAR™ measurements over the landslide area. The displacement time series superimposed reveals clear precursory movements months before the event.

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June 27, 2017. Air and Space Evidence, the world’s first Space Detective Agency, is launching a new service using ‘spy in the sky’ satellite technologies to detect waste crime.

The new service called Waste from Space is based on development of a semi-automated detection model utilizing satellite data (and machine learning algorithms), enabling the company to offer an effective and commercially viable geospatial intelligence tool that can detect serious waste crime.

Waste crime is increasingly causing significant damage to society and is estimated to cost the UK more than a billion pounds a year. It is estimated to cost all EU countries €72 – 90 billion per annum.

Ray Purdy, Director, Air and Space Evidence says, “Waste crime is highly lucrative – and can also be hard to detect. Governments need new investigatory approaches because at the moment they are several steps behind waste crime gangs. We will offer a much needed, innovative intelligence gathering and analysis service to governments, whereby we can identify waste crime that Governments are not aware of, bringing immense value to their work and enabling them to catch more waste crime gangs in the act.”

In 2016, the head of the Environment Agency in England called waste crime the “new narcotics”, commenting that “it feels to me like drugs felt in the 1980s: the system hadn’t quite woken up to the enormity of what was going on and was racing to catch up.” Interpol, Europol and the UN have identified it as one of the fastest growing areas of organized crime. It is increasingly recognized to have the potential to rival drug trafficking in terms of scale and profits. One Italian mafia gang is estimated to make as much money annually from waste crime as the global turnover of McDonald’s.

More than 1,000 illegal waste sites now spring up in England each year. One single site discovered in Northern Ireland is believed to contain 1.5 million tons of illegally deposited waste, which is significantly more municipal waste than the whole of Northern Ireland produces in a year (i.e. 969,157 tons in 2015-2016).

In 2016-2017 Air and Space Evidence received funding from the European Space Agency, Open Data Incubator for Europe (ODINE), and Scottish Environmental Protection Agency to conduct research and trials examining how this problem can be tackled using space technologies. Air and Space Evidence is now launching a much-needed waste crime monitoring service to governments.

Bari, Italy, 22 June 2017. GEO Data Design and IMAGEM have been appointed as a partners by Planetek Italia. Partnership concerns unique Planetek’s platform – Rheticus®.

The contract grants IMAGEM NL and GEO Data Design Ltd. with rights to sell Rheticus® satellite processing services to customers located in the geographic areas where the two companies operate: IMAGEM NL in the Benelux region (Belgium, The Netherlands and Luxembourg), and GEO Data Design Ltd. in South Africa, Ghana, Guinea, Mali and Tanzania.

Rheticus® is a cloud-based platform that delivers fresh and accurate data and information for monitoring of the Earth’s surface transformation phenomena. Rheticus geoinformation service uses a series of industry-focused dashboards to deliver timely and accurate information to policy and decision makers, managers and users for operations and data-driven decision making.

Services available on Rheticus® platform includes, Earth crust subsidence, urban dynamics, forest fires hazard, costal seawater quality as well as many more in the near future.

IMAGEM and GEO Data Design aim to deploy the Rheticus® platform at local governments, environmental and forestry agencies, road and rail, networks (NUTS), construction, mining, heavy industry and more. The platform can be used directly by these customers or by solution providers and system integrators.

“In the Netherlands alone, the cost of damages and repairs to infrastructure above and below ground as a result of deformation is estimated to run into billions of euros in the next decades. With Rheticus, Imagem can now provide our customers with a highly accurate and easy to use online platform that detects subsidence progression over time. This allows users to have an early warning system, avoiding unnecessary risk and cost. Imagem is very pleased to work together with Planetek to make this service available in the Benelux, and connecting it to its Smart M.App platform for use even by non geospatial professionals,” says Patrick de Groot, General Manager at IMAGEM.

After signing the contract, Jaurez Dorfling, Managing Director of GEO Data Design, said: “We are excited to join our experience, reputation, marketing and support capability with the specialist technology and development strengths from Planetek, to deliver cutting edge solutions to the local and international market.”

Giovanni Sylos Labini, CEO at Planetek Italia adds: “We are excited to cooperate with our international partners, IMAGEM and GEO Data Design. Rheticus® will now assist professionals and decision makers in a growing number of countries, relying on the sound professional support of our partners. Born and strengthened under the Hexagon Geospatial network, the cooperation with our partners opens new opportunities to develop and deliver cutting-edge solutions to our markets. Through the integration of the Rheticus® monitoring services in Hexagon Geospatial Smart M.Apps, we can offer insightful analytics and dynamic maps to users worldwide.”

To know more about Rheticus® visit www.rheticus.eu or:

How to join the network of Authorized Resellers

The distribution of Rheticus services is global. Planetek Italia is building a network of valued Authorized Distributors to resell the services and to assist clients worldwide. Several companies in Europe, Central America, Africa and Asia have already joined this innovative business model and started offering Rheticus services to their markets. To be part of this network write at info @ planetek.it
Read more: “https://www.planetek.it/eng/IMAGEM_GDD_new_Rheticus_Authorized_Partners” :https://www.planetek.it/eng/IMAGEM_GDD_new_Rheticus_Authorized_Partners

About Planetek Italia
Planetek Italia is an Italian company established in 1994, providing a broad range of geospatial services including delivery, analysis and processing of satellite data. Premium Partner of Hexagon Geospatial in Italy, Planetek is the creator and operator of the unique Rheticus® cloud platform (www.rheticus.eu), designed for the provision of sophisticated satellite data based monitoring services. For more information, visit www.planetek.it

About IMAGEM
We are IMAGEM, a team of professionals dedicated to communicating location-intelligence and visualising change. We believe in contributing to improving the world we live in. By providing insight to your problems through location based solutions, we help you make smart and informed decisions. We enable you to define your own map of the future. For more information, visit www.imagemnl.com.

About GEO Data Design
GEO Data Design is the preferred geospatial solution provider in Africa with superior technical expertise and turnkey project management through a dynamic and passionate service driven team. GEO Data Design can provide you the best solutions on geospatial processing management software (GIS & Remote Sensing) and satellite imagery, integrating geospatial data (Vector, DEM, Contours) and complete workflows for better decisions. For more information, visit www.geodatadesign.co.za

Toulouse, 22 June 2017 – Airbus, together with non-profit organisation The Forest Trust (TFT) and radar satellite imagery expert SarVision, have launched Starling, an innovative satellite service enabling companies to demonstrate how they are implementing their ‘No Deforestation’ commitments.

The commercial launch follows a successful six-month pilot phase in Ferrero and Nestlé’s palm oil supply chains, during which Starling has underlined its ability for unbiased monitoring of large areas on a regular basis while detecting and identifying forest cover changes with utmost accuracy. A webinar will be hosted on 29 June to show how Starling is supporting the genuine transformation of the palm oil industry by using an advanced combination of optical and radar satellite technology.

Over the past year, the number of companies making commitments to cut deforestation in their operations has risen by 22 percent to 447. Until now, verifying progress of these commitments has been challenging, with brands and producers relying on ground-based checks by auditing firms which are ultimately limited in the amount of land they can cover and how they can monitor change. With commercial agriculture for palm, soy, cattle, timber and pulp responsible for at least two-thirds of global tropical deforestation, companies making forestry conservation pledges have been asking for a reliable verification tool to prove their commitments are working.

Starling provides unprecedented accuracy because of a combination of 1.5m SPOT images and radar that cuts through cloud cover, allowing year-round monitoring. This accuracy also means that Starling can easily differentiate between crop types and between replanting and deforestation. It provides and promotes transparency, allowing companies to demonstrate their commitments as well as manage their operations, reward best practice and contribute to the transformation of the wider palm oil industry.

“Ferrero is continuously committed to finding innovative solutions able to support our efforts towards a more sustainable development,” said Aldo Cristiano, Director Global Procurement Raw Materials and Group Sustainability for Ferrero. “With this in mind, and building on our achievement of 100 percent traceability of our palm oil supply to mill and 98.5 percent to plantation, Ferrero started piloting the Starling service over a few selected plantations. The first results are very positive. We are confident this could be the start of a successful journey in verifying the implementation of our No Deforestation policy”.

“Nestlé is engaged in zero deforestation by 2020 for all its supply chain. Today, even if 91 percent of our palm oil supply could be traced back to the mill, only 57 percent meets our group’s sustainability commitments. To accelerate the verification and the commitment of our suppliers, Starling will allow real time measurement and monitoring of our impact on forest preservation. Starling will help us to do better and faster by co-working with our suppliers,” said Pierre-Alexandre Teulié, Head of Corporate Communications, Public Affairs, e-Business and CSR at Nestlé France.

“The pilot phase, and especially the satisfaction of our customers, once again confirms our cutting-edge expertise in the forestry domain, relying on our land cover analysis tool and the unique capabilities of our SPOT satellites,” said François Lombard, Head of the Intelligence Business Cluster at Airbus Defence and Space.

“Starling is ultimately about democratising the verification process by making it more straightforward and accessible,” said Bastien Sachet, Chief Executive of TFT . “Unlike auditing, Starling is unbiased – the information is there in its purest form, allowing companies to show to their stakeholders and clients what is happening on the ground. Many companies have worked hard to create values-based policies and drive transformation in their supply chains. Starling offers a simple and cost-effective way of measuring this effort and creating opportunities for engagement.”

For more information, visit the Starling webpage

19 June 2017. Artificial intelligence, machine learning and cloud computing will be used to transform big data harvested from Space into targeted and easy-to-use applications for emergency management, precision agriculture, environmental monitoring and safety

On Monday 19 June 2017, at the Paris Air Show in Le Bourget, Leonardo announced the signing of an agreement between e-GEOS and the US-based company Orbital Insight to provide revolutionary satellite services. The partnership will see the convergence of Space technologies and big data analytics to provide radically new products and services for numerous applications including emergency management, precision agriculture, environmental monitoring and safety.

With the support of the Italian Space Agency (ASI), the collaboration between the two companies will allow cloud computing solutions and innovative machine learning/artificial intelligence techniques developed by Orbital Insight to be used to analyse high-resolution satellite images. The images, which e-GEOS acquires from the COSMO-SkyMed Earth observation satellite system and processes, can also be supplemented with data from other information sources.

To give an example, satellite radar images could be used to help generate a comprehensive picture of an area’s economic activity and urban development. By combining different strands of information, such as the income and consumption levels of the people that live there and the intensity of agricultural activities, it is possible to produce ‘poverty maps’ to help decision makers define support or growth policies. The use of Space imagery means that this kind of information can even be provided in regions which, due to a lack of funds to carry out ad hoc surveys or due to current conflicts, have little usable official data available.

“Space already provides an unimaginable quantity of information for a multitude of uses; the real challenge is working out how best to use it”, said Luigi Pasquali, Director of Leonardo’s Space Sector and CEO of Telespazio (a 67-33% joint venture between Leonardo and Thales). “The most sophisticated big data analytics solutions today come from the commercial sector, which are making it possible to manage and process the huge amount of information generated every day by space sensors, by a wide variety of data-gathering platforms and by industry, government organizations and citizens. Our partnership with Orbital Insight will combine our extensive experience in the processing of satellite data with these innovative new techniques, allowing us to offer new services and applications”.

“Our mission is to bring transparency to global socio-economic trends, and to do that, we need as much imagery to analyze as possible,” said Dr. James Crawford, founder and CEO of Orbital Insight. “SAR imagery greatly increases our capabilities by allowing us to track changes on the ground even through cloud cover or at night.”

“This agreement with Orbital Insight, a leading geospatial analytics company, confirms that SAR data is an integral component of satellite datasets,” said Massimo Claudio Comparini, CEO of e-GEOS and Director of Geoinformation Line of Business of Telespazio. “We are excited to work in this new field with Orbital Insight, following our development strategy in digital space transformation based on the analysis and integration of data that’s globally acquired.”

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