LEADERS' OUTLOOK
The Earth Observation Ecosystem is Expanding BY ANDREW MULLIN
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Global Marketing, EarthDaily Analytics
he past decade has been revolutionary for Earth Observation (EO), leading to a massive expansion in the volume of data available. For example, just the combined fleet of Sentinel-1, Sentinel-2 and Sentinel-3 produces terabytes of data per day. The next evolution will be moving from maps to math, that is, analyzing the vast amount of data being collected. Following that, we believe artificial intelligence and machine learning applications will be some of our industry’s innovation trends.
ANNUAL EDITION / JANUARY-FEBRUARY 2022
Space is increasingly becoming more democratized and accessible, which will inevitably bring more human-made challenges to Space sustainability. We are open to some Space governance and believe a stronger system will be needed to effectively address the rapidly evolving ecosystem.
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It is evident that the EO ecosystem is expanding, and the application of technology continues to evolve to assist businesses and governmental entities confronting the world’s most pressing challenges. As the cost required to deploy satellites goes down, the door becomes open to many more use cases and business impacts, but it will require
cross-industry adoption of new technology.
The pandemic was our baseline
EarthDaily Analytics was formed in the spring of 2021, so we began our business during COVID-19. In this regard, the pandemic has actually been our baseline since our inception. Today, with customers in nearly 40 countries, and that global presence means we need to be digitally equipped no matter what. Because of this, we’ve been a fully digital business since our beginning. The benefits of digital have become even more apparent during the pandemic, and in an innovative industry like ours, it’s no surprise that companies are embracing the digital economy. We initiated construction of the EarthDaily Constellation in late 2021 with committed support from Antarctica Capital. Following planned launches in 2023, the EarthDaily Constellation will combine with the EarthPipeline data processing system to provide unprecedented scientific grade data of the world every day, positioning EarthDaily Analytics to meet the growing needs of diverse industries including agriculture, environmental social & governance (ESG), insurance, disaster prevention and recovery, commodities trading, and more.
The next evolution will be moving from maps to math, that is, analyzing the vast amount of data being collected with artificial intelligence and machine learning applications.
Collaboration and partnerships
Businesses need advanced analytics so they can validate and verify the potential effects of climate change and sustainably adjust to resulting impacts. For example, in agriculture, the topic of carbon sequestration is garnering interest. EO can help support sustainability efforts by verifying and measuring the impact of sustainable farming practices aimed at improving the amount of carbon sequestered from the atmosphere. EO can do this by establishing a baseline, detecting change and verifying results. For all this to happen, we need a healthy collaborative environment. I see public-private partnerships helping to expand the application of EO technology. We are also seeing new private companies, much like EarthDaily Analytics, beginning to push the boundaries. Then there are affordable launch rockets and new sensors and technologies that are continuing to revolutionize the industry. Adoption of new technology, including EO, happens over time. It starts with a small handful of early adopters, moves through the massive mid-market and eventually enters the hands of even the most change-resistant industries.
