Earth Observation CEOs Analyze 2023, a Seismic Year in EO

The Earth Observation (EO) market is one of the most dynamic in satellite right now. As the fight against climate change rages on, satellite companies in this area have a vital role as they look to provide data and imagery that provides governments and enterprises all over the world with actionable insights. It is a market that showcases the best of innovation in our sector.

In this feature, Via Satellite talks to some of the biggest companies in this arena and discusses what the big stories were of 2023, and what they expect to see in 2024. Taking part in the round table are: Susanne Hake, general manager of U.S. Government for Maxar Intelligence; Theresa Condor, COO of Spire Global, Awais Ahmed, CEO of Pixxel; Paolo Minciacchi, CEO of e-GEOS; and Anders Linder, general manager of International Government for Maxar Intelligence.

VIA SATELLITE: It has been another seismic year in the satellite industry. As climate change continues to dominate news cycles, do you think the role of satellite companies in the EO arena has fundamentally changed over the last two to three years?

Hake: Commercial satellite imagery serves as a source of indisputable truth, providing valuable insight into what’s happening in a situation and helping to combat disinformation. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022 was an inflection point for the industry, as the use of commercial satellite imagery throughout that conflict has underscored its critical value. Satellite imagery played a vital role in helping Ukraine defend its territory and it was a source of indisputable truth enabling accurate reporting of events on the ground.

The conflict also served as a crash test of the real-world possibilities for new forms of sensing and new analytics. Commercial industry has been called upon to provide multi-source, multi-INT data collection, processing and analytics. We also are seeing a growth in interest in incorporating 3D data, which is why Maxar Intelligence is building a high resolution digital twin of the Earth that enables users to interact with real-world environments from any location on the planet.

Condor: There is greater recognition than even a few years ago of the role that satellite EO can play in tackling big challenges, such as issues related to climate and sustainability, as well as security challenges. What has more dramatically shifted is the common understanding of what constitutes EO. For a long time, this almost exclusively meant some type of optical imaging. Now, that common understanding of what is included in the EO bucket is expanding; notably it is now encompassing observations that are captured from radio signals or “remote sensing.” Spire specializes in RF-based observations and for years we were told that our use of GNSS signals to produce weather and climate datasets was not falling in the telecom bucket and was not falling in the EO bucket. Therefore, no one knew how to categorize us. This blurring of the clear dividing lines between what has classically been telecom, EO, or PNT is a new feature. This is welcome since what really matters is the use case and application of the data and insights that drive decisions in the real world, not the technique itself.

Ahmed: Absolutely. Three years ago, the primary use cases and quality of satellite imagery available were extremely different. We’ve seen incredible advancements in technology allowing for more in depth analysis of the world and expanded use cases to new industries. We’ve seen satellite companies becoming much more proactive in their approaches to share more accurate, timely, and specific data for critical fields like agriculture, oil, gas, and mining. In addition to addressing climate change, we’ve also seen these satellite companies take a more active role in observing the environmental impact from climate change as well as impact from geopolitical issues including Russia/Ukraine and Gaza/Israel. The information that can be observed and applied to provide a better understanding of our world is critical to provide tailored and impactful solutions. The role of satellite companies has never been more important.

SATELLITE: In terms of EO/imaging/climate change, what do you think were the two biggest stories to emerge in 2023?

Ahmed: One big story was how satellite imagery came into play during climate and environmental crises. For example, during the Hawaii wildfires and the oil leak at the Keystone Pipeline, people looked to satellite imagery in order to track and mitigate damage. As more data becomes available, satellite data will only become more important in these situations. We’re looking forward to 2024 to more satellite launches so we can supply even more hyperspectral data.

Another big story was the huge investments into the space industry. After the climate bill passed in 2022, we saw an influx of interest from investors who saw a big opportunity in climate tech. Pixxel is proud to have raised $36 million from investors like Google, and I think this interest will only continue to grow.

Condor: The monitoring of greenhouse gasses is something that everyone is interested in and there are now actual constellations deployed that can provide this information commercially, such as GHGSat. I think wildfire monitoring is another big one that is gaining momentum and interest around the world, with Ororatech seeing a lot of success. Both of these companies are focused on the data, the use cases, the processing, and the real world applications rather than on the space tech. This is really important for EO to make an impact.

VIA SATELLITE: Has satellite imagery/EO become mainstream? It used to be the realm of governments, but has it made significant inroads in the commercial arena?

Condor: A lot of people find images from satellites fascinating and the awareness of it has gone much more mainstream. Using EO data still requires very specialized knowledge, revisit rates and latency can still be problematic, and many of the most impactful use cases are either in areas where it can be fragmented and difficult to get the returns or it is for a common good where governments really need to make investments from a customer perspective. It is not either/or. There is absolutely a commercial need – but some of these problems that EO is tackling need to have a government sponsor and not only a commercial one. I think we need to be frank about this. Governments don’t need to own and build the tech, but they do need to be part of the customer base. Security, disaster response, and climate monitoring are all areas where EO is incredibly important and where the pure commercial customer base doesn’t exist in a meaningful enough way to maintain and deploy all of the infrastructure.

Ahmed: Satellite imagery has definitely expanded into more commercial uses these past few years but wouldn’t say it’s completely mainstream yet. There is a huge commercial market, offering valuable data that can benefit virtually every industry. Pixxel has customers spanning mining, agriculture, oil industries and more that uses hyperspectral imaging to inform their decision-making processes. The more data that will promulgate in the world, the more mainstream it will start to become in the coming three to five years.

Minciacchi: The EO market is growing exponentially, but institutional demand and funding on downstream services is still very fragmented. Therefore, system activities are needed with institutions as anchor customers that give more value to outputs from satellite data. Climate services, even in the very rich and complex geopolitical situation where the world's attention and resources have been absorbed by the geopolitical crisis remain important. Each country is setting goals in this area and this is where the EO market comes in.

VIA SATELLITE: What impact will AI have when it comes to this part of the market?

Hake: AI/ML models already play a major role in EO and will only grow in importance and utility. We are still at the early stages of utilizing AI/ML to increase the utility of geospatial data and analytics to customers and helping humans extract insights from pixels faster for any mission.

There has been an exponential increase in the amount of available commercial geospatial data and there aren’t enough human analysts to sift through this data quickly and efficiently. We build AI/ML models that turn vast amounts of geospatial data into actionable intelligence, enabling customers to make mission-specific decisions faster and at scale. These technologies enable faster ‘sensor-to-decision’ workflows by improving the efficiency and effectiveness of human analysis, allowing the analyst to focus their attention on the data that matters most to their mission.

Condor: AI will have an impact. The processing and learning from these datasets is very difficult. The more this can be done in an automated way and the more tasking of the network can be done in an automated way, the more usable EO becomes for real-time decision-making. Ultimately, processing needs to occur on the network.

Ahmed: AI will have a huge impact on the EO market. Just this year, we launched the beta of our AI analytics platform, Aurora, which provides users with the tools to ingest, correct, transform, and analyze hyperspectral satellite imagery. Satellite data can be extremely complex, and requires an in-depth understanding of the data to take actionable insight away. AI will lend a huge hand in helping to make this data more digestible and allow users to make quicker and more accurate decisions.

VIA SATELLITE: We have seen over the years as satellites have got better, this part of the market has really exploded into life. What do you see as the next potential game changer in terms of technology in this area? What is the next big evolution of this market?

Ahmed: We’re entering into an era of speed and accuracy. We’ll continue to see these satellites developing more advanced specs and providing more in-depth data. I think the next potential game changer would be a truly mainstream satellite imagery analytics platform that will take the imagery into the hands of common people should they need it. As we think about how EO has broken into more mainstream markets, there will be a growing need to develop such tools on a quicker scale.

Minciacchi: The evolutions which will drive the EO and geoinformation market will be determined by several factors such as the availability of highly capable sensors and low latency technology. Thanks to high power computing (HPC) that is optimized to process a very high volume of data with minimal delay (latency), and secure connectivity, we will be able to serve customers that require near real-time access to rapidly changing data. Another very important factor that will bring a major change and evolution of the geoinformation market is the digital modeling and the application of AI that enables the extraction of valuable indexes and information in a very efficient, fast and timely manner. All these technology aspects are not possible without significant expertise in vertical domains and knowing what the customer needs.

VIA SATELLITE: Finally, what do you think 2024 will hold for this sector? We talk about the seismic changes in the connectivity part of the market between the traditional operators and Starlink and Amazon. What do you think might happen in this part of the market?

Linder: As we look towards 2024, I believe we are on the cusp of transformative changes driven by three key trends. First, there will be a significant shift towards mission-focused tasking across multiple satellite constellations. This evolution will heighten the demand for orchestrated collection management, multi-source processing, data fusion, and advanced sense-making and geospatial insights. These developments are not just about collecting more data, but about integrating and interpreting it in more sophisticated, mission-critical ways.

Second, the sector will witness a groundbreaking enhancement in theater access to space ISR assets. This will revolutionize battlefield operations with unprecedented low end-to-end latencies and facilitate preemptive tasking for time-sensitive collections. High revisit rates over locations of interest and the ability to provide actionable insights even to low-bandwidth users will significantly augment operational efficiency and responsiveness in conflict zones.

Last, 2024 will see the continuation of a paradigm shift from viewing space as a haven to acknowledging and responding to the potential challenges of space warfare. We will see a strategic and security-focused approach to space activities, reflecting the changing nature of space as a domain of both commercial opportunity and geopolitical contention.

Condor: We live in very uncertain times and geopolitical hotspots seem to be exploding. There is a great need for commercially available data, not just from intelligence agencies who are worried about something being high side, but from those groups on the ground trying to make immediate decisions from data they can access simply or that they can use for attribution and backup. Geopolitical events overlaid with increasing capabilities and openness to commercially-procured data means that I think this will continue. The trend towards commercial service purchases started with traditional telecom, moved to launch and imaging, and is now happening in weather data and RF.

I believe what really becomes game-changing is when you have laser intersatellite links for a connected network in space (LEO-LEO, LEO-GEO/MEO and interoperable) with high performance computing that allows AI on-orbit and edge decision-making. The fusion of different kinds of observations across the network is also going to be important. Once this happens, space truly becomes something that every industry must use.

Regulatory issues are going to have a lot of focus in 2024. This relates to space sustainability, both how to monitor the space environment and expectations on space actors. It will also cover spectrum, which is a truly scarce resource, and can have big implications on how things play out in LEO.

Ahmed: 2024 will be a huge year for the EO sector in LEO. We’ve seen incredible advancements over the past decade and with more climate regulation and an increased desire to utilize satellite imagery to address climate change – we will see this industry continue to boom. The GEO/MEO/LEO market will continue to evolve as a result of increased interest from these large companies like SpaceX, Amazon and OneWeb. But the EO domain will remain limited to LEO due to resolution constraints while we will see miniaturization of MEO and GEO tech enabling wider reach from those technologies due to lower costs. We’ve seen a lot of changes to this market already – and as we look forward it will continue to grow through technological innovations, commercialization, and international collaboration.

Minciacchi: The market focus in 2024 will still be institutional and governmental, particularly on Defense and Intelligence. This is also due to the very complex geopolitical situation at present. In the area of satellite telecommunications, the picture is evolving fast, but still to be fully defined. Indeed, the consolidation of the EO market will be a reality. In fact we can register an increased competition in a scenario where the downstream services are growing less than expected. Therefore, we expect to see consolidation in the market, as it is too fragmented at the moment. In particular, satellite EO operators are already moving toward verticalization of offerings including satellite data, satellite platforms and providing analytics services mainly related to proprietary data. VS