The satellite sent to loiter in earth’s orbit is surging copious amounts of data about the earth, other planets and space-based events; this abundance of data extracted from satellites is known as ‘satellite imagery’ or ‘satellite data’. Satellite-based data serves a plethora of insight generation for humans, among which EO or Earth Observation Data is the most common use of satellite data.
EO elaborates the most minute weather changes, earth surface surveillance or any negligible event that happens in the earth, air and water of our planet. Satellite data is extracted via remote sensing technologies like SAR (Synthetic-Aperture Radar) technology, which uses cumulative data streams to understand the dynamic changes of the earth. This revelation allows satellite data users to act swiftly against impending threats and risks that affect the humans, wildlife and natural resources of the world. Satellite data is now known by many industrial experts, governments and space specialists for its capability to serve the earth to detect and mitigate the risks of human-made or natural disasters, crimes, improving commercial services and more.
In this article, we elucidate the seven most crucial uses of capitalising satellite data that have remarkable contributions to the development of human life and the perseverance of natural resources.
EO elaborates the most minute weather changes, earth surface surveillance or any negligible event that happens in the earth, air and water of our planet. Satellite data is extracted via remote sensing technologies like SAR (Synthetic-Aperture Radar) technology, which uses cumulative data streams to understand the dynamic changes of the earth. This revelation allows satellite data users to act swiftly against impending threats and risks that affect the humans, wildlife and natural resources of the world. Satellite data is now known by many industrial experts, governments and space specialists for its capability to serve the earth to detect and mitigate the risks of human-made or natural disasters, crimes, improving commercial services and more.
In this article, we elucidate the seven most crucial uses of capitalising satellite data that have remarkable contributions to the development of human life and the perseverance of natural resources.
Seven Most Fascinating Purposes of Using Satellite Data
Understanding the main purposes of satellite data will help you as an individual or a company to oversee a glimpse of the near future. Here are 7 hand-picked satellite data usages that have global influences on the present and future generations of our world.
Algal Bloom Threat Mitigation
- Toxic algal blooms that create potent toxins like red tides, dinoflagellates, cyanobacteria (CyanoHABs), diatoms can affect the health of humans, pets and wildlife and even inflict fatal blows on living things.
- This is why the detection of HAB dead zones and prediction of the spread of HABs to mitigate their impact is crucial for most countries.
- Sentinel- 2A/B satellites empowered by in situ data allows detection and prediction of HAB (Harmful Algal Blooms) in approachable and hard-to-reach coastal areas of any country.
- Satellite data is used by governmental establishments to detect HAB beds on portable water or water wildlife areas.
- Satellites can enable optical viewpoints to monitor the sea surface temperature and colours of the ocean to map algal bloom trends and locations to understand the threat to aquaculture and improve the sustainability of endangered species.
Climatic Change Identification
- Estimating vast forest supplies, comparing the unpredictable behaviour of climatic factors, tracing human impact on climatic changes and more can be tracked and studied by satellite data too.
- MODIS, AVHRR and SPOT remote sensing technologies have the capability to quantitatively measure the gain, perseverance and loss of the forest through a global-scale lens.
- Satellite data derived from AMSR-1, MOPITT, TRMM and more can provide enough insight to tailor impactful climate maps tailored to a global time-series concept.
- Satellite datasets can monitor climate-based variables like aerosol size, chlorophyll and CO (Carbon Monoxide).
- Another event that satellite data helps in this aspect is helping climate experts in understanding the rise of sea levels (that is clearly a global scale problem due to warming up the planet).
- Critical cities like Venice, which keep sinking more with every passing year, highly necessitate baseline spatial data to understand how the rise of sea-level impacts coastal countries.
Ecological Advancements
- The ecological benefits are an indispensable purpose that is highlighted amongst the advantages of satellite data.
- Satellite-based remote sensing technologies have the propensity to track endangered species like polar bears who are under critical threats due to global warming.
- This technology can get a firm count on the creatures and ensure they are safeguarded and protected against dynamic weather changes.
- Giant Pandas is another species threatened by urbanisation; satellite data can detect heavily populated areas of Giant Pandas and ensure that road and infrastructure construction does not hinder the life of these creatures.
- Remote sensing can classify human-made corridors and fragmentation as factors to protect and raise the population of Giant Pandas.
- Satellite data (LiDAR, radar and multispectral satellite data) can heed in understanding the perseverance of migratory birds and wildebeests.
- This data can help ecologists and nature preserving centres to build dynamic Habitat Suitability Models and take precautions to ensure the health, safety and perseverance of migratory animals.
Engineering, Construction and Asset Management
- In terms of designing irrigation systems, deciding telecom networks based on optimal capacities and understanding the conditional and structural health of hard-to-reach assets, satellite data plays a main role.
- Satellite data can validate industrial infrastructure building by illustrating the impacts that are aimed at the preservation of natural resources and the well-being of human lifestyles.
- The information generated by satellites can balance the socioeconomic influences in engineering and constructing expensive infrastructure.
- Asset Management and maintenance is another purpose that is greatly contributed by Satellite Data.
- Landsat Data sets can enable Smart and Integrated Asset Solutions empowered by EO data to monitor the risk and structural and conditional performance of assets singularly.
Forestation
- Millions of animals and humans depend on expansive forests that are budded at different points of the globe; therefore, any catastrophe that inflicts a threat or risk on the health and sustenance of forests must be controlled and mitigated.
- Satellite data provides the needful insights to reverse illegal tree-cutting, fight destructive wildfires when they are just sparks, and prevent propagating forest diseases.
- Remote sensing technologies like MODIS and AVHRR powered by operational satellite data are most suitable to detect wildfires.
- When it comes to illegal deforestation, governments can use satellite data and other technological advancements like smart devices, IIoT, GPS, Google Earth and more to detect any anomaly in the emergence of green under screens.
- This technology suite will facilitate illegal activity and mitigation of the spreading of diseased trees at any point in the world.
Optimise Agricultural Productivity
- Satellite data plays a prominent role in facilitating the Agriculture Industry phenomenally.
- NDVI (Normalized Difference Vegetation Index) and satellite imagery play key roles in identifying the feasibility and performance of the global food supply.
- The health of far-spread vegetation (even spots in hard-to-monitor areas of the field) can be detected by a combined effort in utilising near-infrared radiation and NDVI.
- This would optimise precision agriculture resulting in the mitigation of negligible costs, wasted time and daunting and needless efforts by farmers and agriculture-related industrial practitioners.
- Remote sensing technology can also facilitate in controlling the impacts of pests that damage the food supplies and provide enough insights to control pest infestations and wasted vegetation.
- Satellite-based insights do not only facilitate existing vegetation but can also predict the spatial soil properties and related covariates like climatic indices to map soil types consolidated.
Predicting and Mitigating Risks of Disasters
- Landsat data sets empowered by AI-driven predictive models can help governments to control artificial and natural disasters.
- Artificial disasters like dead zones, sea debris, smog, wars, chemical spills, oil spills, water, land and air pollution are only a few human-made disasters that destroy the world inside out.
- This is why space enthusiasts, technology experts and the government’s initiative EO missions to control artificial disasters.
- Thermal remote sensing, optical and stereo image analytics, object-based image classification technologies and other technological advancements powered by satellite data are used to mitigate the impacts of uncontrollable natural disasters.
- These technological tools help disaster control and receiver measures to be more relatable, reliable and safer for the human, wildlife and natural resources impacted by natural disasters like volcanoes, storms, hurricanes, landslides, floods and more.
Cerexio- One of The Few Leading Technology Experts to Use Satellite-Driven Technology and Proven to Solve Real-World Problems.
With the advancements of technologies, especially after the emergence of space-accommodated technologies, many technology experts are challenged in being accustomed to change. But Cerexio remains resilient to these changes and adapts technology services to meet the remote sensing demands of our clients. Cerexio is Singapore’s pioneering technology solution enabled to be equipped with remote sensing technology and patented AI-driven algorithms to leverage satellite data to facilitate asset upkeep, empowering the wellbeing of humans and wildlife and conserving natural resources for the future. Connect with Cerexio to learn more about our satellite-based technological suites in detail.
A Satellite-driven Future is Within Our Reach
Satellites are soon to play an indispensable role in enhancing mobility technology, internet, communication services, earth and ocean and observation, national defence, asset management and risk management, natural disaster risk mitigation and recovery, the moratorium on natural resource threats and many other non-negligible areas. It is expected that over 2,000 small satellites (microsatellites and nanosatellites) and hundreds of large satellites will be released, burgeoning the space industry and booming streams of global benefits improving all living things and natural resources in the world.
