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Earth Online: non-stop satellite monitoring platform

nimbo.earth

21–27 of 27 posts

Re: Earth Online: non-stop satellite monitoring platform

#21

Who's satellites does this use? I remember planet.com had a free tier too, then went entirely pay walled.

Looks like they mostly use Sentinel-2 data and apply some processing on top. So it's basically (publicly funded?) open data [1, 2], available in multiple viewers [3, 4] and even on AWS [5]. Still a cool project!

On a related note: I think it's kind of puzzling that all this data is freely available but seems to be rather complicated to access. One would assume building/operating satellites is more complex than making that data available in formats the average startup web developer can use almost instantly. IMHO you can see a similar pattern in weather data: it seems like there are a bunch of platforms which are basically wrapping public weather service's domain specific formats in a 'nicer' REST API. One could argue there's documentation on these formats, just read the docs, duh. However, I think lowering the barrier to entry by providing easy access and documentation could enable way more people to work with this data.

IMHO if you know some basic python and know your way around the requests library, it should be trivial for you to get started working with these datasets. That's just my personal opinion based on my experiences from a few years ago. Maybe it's way easier by now and there's a bunch of great free open APIs for this stuff. It always feels like they fulfill all the basic requirements to open the dataset and write some documentation but the last (small) step of writing the basic 'getting started' docs/blog posts and maybe some REST API for access is missing. Instead, confronted with lower than expected usage, a bunch of industry-transfer projects are spun-up to increase adoption. I guess DX also matters for open data hosted by public entities. /rant

[1] https://open.esa.int/

[2] https://dataspace.copernicus.eu/

[3] https://browser.dataspace.copernicus.eu

[4] https://www.sentinel-hub.com/explore/eobrowser/

[5] https://registry.opendata.aws/sentinel-2/

Re: Earth Online: non-stop satellite monitoring platform

#22
Curiously, I haven't seen any mention of Google Earth Engine (GEE) in these comments so far. On top of offering a massive data repo of optical and SAR satellite imagery dating back to the 70s (LANDSAT 1-9, Sentinel 1-2 and others), it also has a Python API module (and thus can also use GIS, web integration etc.) and you can also use the in-browser JavaScript version (GEE Code Editor) all for free. With that, you can create your own indexes for whatever purpose with some image arithmetics. Its business model is that you have to pay monthly if you're sourcing massive amounts of data or using it at enterprise scale. I think the best part of the JS version (despite being slow at times) is being able to share an entire project with a link.

It seems that Nimbo is trying to offer a more analysis-ready alternative with some pre-processing like cloud removal done beforehand, which can be done yourself with some coding and with greater control on GEE. The lack of mention of the exact spatial or temporal resolution and surface coverage is an odd choice to me. These parameters are what I look for first and foremost when considering alternative data sources. With multiple data products, I think the website should atleast give a range (Minutes, days? Centimeter, meters?) of what resolutions are available. The comparison with Google Earth seen on the website is also bizarre to me as GEE is a more apt comparison because it is specifically meant for manipulating and sourcing satellite imagery. It would be more compelling to see a comparison of that instead.

I previously used GEE at university for flood mapping and mapping forest fire damage. This tool is also actively being used in peer reviewed journals with a large community around it. And yes, you can use it to see the effects of climate change and human impact on nature, I will leave it as an exercise for you to search for examples.

Re: Earth Online: non-stop satellite monitoring platform

#24
post #21

Who's satellites does this use? I remember planet.com had a free tier too, then went entirely pay walled.

Looks like they mostly use Sentinel-2 data and apply some processing on top. So it's basically (publicly funded?) open data [1, 2], available in multiple viewers [3, 4] and even on AWS [5]. Still a cool project! On a related note: I think it's kind of puzzling that all this data is freely available but seems to be rather complicated to access. One would assume building/operating satellites is more complex than making…

> One would assume building/operating satellites is more complex than making that data available in formats the average startup web developer can use almost instantly.

That sounds intentional to me.

They provide the data as a public service without getting their servers hammered by people who don't understand "free" isn't costless.

Re: Earth Online: non-stop satellite monitoring platform

#25
post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Looks like they mostly use Sentinel-2 data and apply some processing on top. So it's basically (publicly funded?) open data [1, 2], available in multiple viewers [3, 4] and even on AWS [5]. Still a cool project! On a related note: I think it's kind of puzzling that all this data is freely available but seems to be rather complicated to access. One would assume building/operating satellites is more complex than making…

> One would assume building/operating satellites is more complex than making that data available in formats the average startup web developer can use almost instantly. That sounds intentional to me. They provide the data as a public service without getting their servers hammered by people who don't understand "free" isn't costless.

They could add registration and rate-limits
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