Analytics Key for EO Innovation

SkyFi is reshaping the way we interpret and analyze the Earth Observation data. With satellite miniaturization and on-board processing encompassing the recent innovations in the domain, Luke Fischer, Co-Founder & CEO, SkyFi sheds light on the commercial and consumer aspects of the EO sector.

What do you think are the key trends in EO?

The EO trends constantly change as the commercial consumer becomes more educated. Traditionally, the most sophisticated consumers of geospatial imagery and analytics have, for the most part, been governments and academic institutions.

This is primarily because they have accessed the data for the longest time. However, as we see the commercial industry recognize the value, and explore more deeply the opportunities of the various analytics, the supply (EO industry) flexes to meet the demand.

The foundation of all understanding is understanding the different phenomenologies. We think of Earth imagery like the photos we take with cameras, but there are all different kinds (radar, electro-optical, hyperspectral, radio frequency, etc.).

Once we move beyond simple explanations, then there is explaining how much complex metadata there is in each picture. Earth observation imagery is so rich and varied; there is so much we cannot see with the naked eye.

Change detection is an easy-to-consume concept but hyperspectral analysis is a bit more abstract. We are also excited to see geospatial companies explore commercial use cases for data and analytics that have previously existed only in the national security realm, namely commercial RF and AdTech.

For example, black ship detection is important for the protection of undersea cables but that same analysis, slightly changed for the audience, is equally valuable to maritime insurers, ship managers, and regulators.

Similarly, keeping track of a mining boundary that abuts a protected forest is valuable for the mining company and the conservation organization ensuring accountability.

Perhaps to no one’s surprise, some of our earliest adopters are commodities traders. This can be due to the nature of this occupation and the perpetual pursuit of information arbitrage, these customers are inquisitive and willing to take risks with something new.

Speed and accuracy equal lethality in warfare; the same equates to money in the commercial industry. So, this is merely the natural progression of a capability previously reserved for nation-states making its way into the hands of industry, like the internet and GNSS before it.

All this to point to the trend that, as launch costs go down, we see an increase in satellites into low earth orbit (LEO). With more data, we see more really amazing software companies become successful.

The only thing left is to educate consumers on all the amazing benefits — and then prove we’re right!

Please tell us about your integrated analytics marketplace, and what do you think is the key to ensuring that we offer cutting-edge analysis?  

For SkyFi, the key is to be constantly in the mix with the new and established analytic companies because our entire platform is built on partnerships where we bring the best tools to our consumers.

Like any good company (especially start-ups), we constantly iterate on how we are presenting our offerings to our customers. We are constantly asking ourselves how we can improve the SkyFi UX (user experience) not only through an intuitive UI (user interface) but also organized in a manner that meets our customers where they are.

This can quickly become overwhelming, so we try to balance education with industry-focused tool kits.

Thus, we are building the most user-friendly geospatial platform on the market and are able to iterate and scale quickly based on customer feedback.

What do you think would be the impact of LLMs and Generative AI on the EO analytics segment? 

At SkyFi, we are super excited about generative AI. We are constantly testing different ones (and our engineers have even played around with building some very specific ones ourselves).

The entire thesis of SkyFi is to take this vast, growing, and exciting world of geospatial imagery and analytics and bring it to our customers in an easily digestible manner.

Do you think the geospatial sector is heading towards a new paradigm of not just bespoke solutions, but accessible user-friendly platforms? And what’s driving it? 

SkyFi aims to reduce a lot of the headaches in accessing geospatial imagery and analytics. This industry has been built around government acquisition cycles – slow sales, large minimums-to-play, and single-source.

In a day and age where you can buy a house or a foreign piece of property online, it seems quite ridiculous you can’t task a single satellite image from the myriad of providers without a ton of hassle.

Right now, this is still a very project-oriented industry. Combining different sensor types and analytics takes some time and education to understand how, when, and where to focus if the consumer has a complex problem to solve (especially when it involves analytics).

In the near term, we place heavy emphasis on CX (customer experience) not just self-serve on the platform but also direct relationships where requested.

Several exciting developments are in the early stages right now. Laser communications will speed downlink time, and on-edge computing will make imagery and analytics less wasteful, allowing smaller packets to be downlinked.

All of this will continue to drive down the cost of satellite imagery and analytics, thus making it even more price accessible to smaller businesses.

In the near term, there are many great analytics (e.g., NDWI for standing water) that can be run on low-resolution open data (free imagery); these are extremely useful to multiple use-cases, helping us prove just how accessible Earth observation imagery and analytics can be.

What is the future vision and growth outlook of SkyFi aligning with global sustainability roadmap? 

SkyFi is heavily invested in the future of global sustainability. The beauty of Earth observation imagery and analytics is that it companies reach and maintain their sustainability goals as well as enable accountability.

The amount of data one can pull from a simple image of the Earth can also provide novel solutions to better reach sustainability goals. For example, we can determine vegetation health to get an early warning of crop issues, adjust soil composition using environmentally friendly fertilizers, and make mineral discovery for mining operations highly targeted, thus disrupting the natural habitat less.

There are also ways to ensure ship speed accountability to reduce ocean pollution and illegal fishing accountability to ensure healthy and sustainable fish populations. Targeted development and sustainment of alternative energy sources based on environmental and urban surveys, can also be done.

These are just a few examples of how people are using SkyFi and Earth observation data and analytics to keep our planet healthy.