Earth observation data is increasingly relied upon for critical intelligence across multiple industry sectors, from environmental monitoring to land management, to insurance and many more. But Earth observation imaging from satellites is currently hampered by clouds and intelligence is lost during each period of cloud cover.
Aspia Space has launched a cutting-edge solution that sees through clouds. Its new service will provide organisations with accurate, rapid, regular, cloud-free high-resolution images of the ground almost anywhere in the world, from entire countries down to a pixel scale of 10m.
Its unique patented algorithm combines AI and cloud-penetrating Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) Earth observation data to predict detailed multispectral satellite imagery of the ground, from farmland to flood plains to mountain ranges, even in the presence of 100% cloud cover.
Aspia Space brings together its breakthrough technology with expert human eye analysis by its team of scientists to provide organisations with enhanced intelligence about changes to the ground over time, from days, weeks, months or years. This will enable organisations to see both the big picture and finer details with accuracy, identify and understand trends, detect issues and predict risks and make faster, more informed decisions.
Jim Geach, co-founder of Aspia Space, commented: “Our service unlocks Earth observation imaging data and intelligence that would have otherwise been lost. By bringing together advances in satellite imaging and machine learning, as well as a deep knowledge of how to analyse and interpret data, we can offer businesses and organisations unprecedented cloud-free Earth observation imaging and understanding of the conditions and trends on the ground, across multiple sites, anywhere in the world. This hands them the opportunity to solve problems faster, discover new opportunities and manage resources more effectively.”
Aspia Space and Origin Digital announce world-first agriculture service in inaugural client partnership
Aspia Space has partnered with UK ag-tech company Origin Digital to bring its ‘ClearSky’ cloud-free imaging service to the UK agriculture sector. Farmers using the revolutionary service, launching imminently, are guaranteed to receive a satellite image every six days showing them how their crop is developing, whatever the weather. This is in contrast to traditional, weather-dependent imagery which can often have gaps of several weeks between cloud-free views. Analysis by Origin Digital found that while the European Space Agency’s widely used ‘Sentinel 2’ satellites captured an average of just 13 clear images per UK farm in 2021, ClearSky can produce more than 60.
Madhumita Mund Rao, Head of Data at Origin Digital, commented: “ClearSky is a hugely exciting development that we’re delighted to bring to UK agriculture, because it guarantees the ingredient of dependable regularity that precision farming systems need to deliver optimal results, but which has been missing from traditional imagery services. This reliability will give UK farmers a substantial new advantage in sustainably optimising their yield and input use.”
Origin Digital and Aspia Space plan to deepen their collaboration to localise and export the benefits of ClearSky to farmers around the world, as well as developing further potential applications that bring innovative data insights to UK agriculture.
Investment from AeroSpace Cornwall
Aspia Space has also acquired significant funding from AeroSpace Cornwall for research and development of its Earth observation data analysis technology.
Gail Eastaugh, Director of AeroSpace Cornwall, commented: “We are pleased to partner with Aspia Space and support this ground-breaking approach to Earth observation and machine learning. Supporting innovative businesses with space and data R&D projects is generating a wider interest in the space and data sectors in Cornwall. This is helping the Cornwall Space Cluster grow exponentially and become established.”
Aspia Space’s patented technology has been developed over the past four years by Professor Jim Geach, Professor of Astrophysics and PhD student Mike Smith at the Centre for Astrophysics Research at the University of Hertfordshire.