In this discussion with Chiara Solimini, Space Downstream Market Officer at EUSPA, listeners dive into the pivotal role of the European Union Agency for the Space Programme in Earth observation. Chiara sheds light on how EUSPA promotes the Copernicus program to support sustainability, particularly within the EU Green Deal. She also discusses the agency's focus on encouraging research and entrepreneurship in the space sector, detailing upcoming initiatives that further empower startups to leverage space data for innovative solutions.

Rhiannan Price, Chief Strategy & Innovation Officer at DevGlobal, discusses the use of Earth observation in the development sector, the journey from imagery to impact, challenges in using EO data, and the state of adoption of EO in development.

Today, I am speaking with Thijs van Leeuwen, Director of Product at Planet. Most of you should be aware of Planet, the company that operates the largest fleet of earth imaging satellites. A couple of years ago, Planet acquired VanderSat, a Dutch startup offering data products like soil moisture derived from various sources of satellite data.Today, VanderSat's capabilities are integrated into Planet and the fruit of that collaboration is what Planet calls Planetary Variables (PVs), a set of products that are directly usable by end-users without the need to process satellite imagery. As an advocate of making EO mainstream, I have been quite excited about PVs ever since the announcement. So, I decided to have a chat with Thijs, who was the CEO of VanderSat before the acquisition, on the podcast. In this episode, we discuss VanderSat's journey, what are Planetary Variables, what data sources they use, the black-box problem, Planet's vision for Planetary Variables and more.Planet acquires VanderSatPlanetary Variables---01:17: Thijs' Intro and Overview of Planet06:53: VanderSat: Founding journey13:07: Acquisition by Planet15:23: What are Planetary Variables (PVs)?18:57: Examples of PVs and what data they use22:44: Are PVs data-agnostic or do they use only Planet data?23:59: How do PVs fit into Planet's vision and existing set of customers? 29:11: How do you come up with a PV?30:48: The black-box problem: What is the methodology to derive a PV?35:26: The future of PVs after the acquisition of Sinergise38:34: The state of EO and why EO is not mainstream yet43:07: Wrap-up questions

Today, we are zooming out from Earth observation a little bit and going to focus on a subject that I think is very important for the future of EO: space sustainability.We are launching more Earth observation satellites than ever before, and the progress in space tech has meant that any individual, organisation or country can put up an instrument in space to collect data for scientific, commercial, environmental or strategic purposes. But how sustainable is that? To discuss this I had Krystal Azelton, Director of Application Programs at the Secure World Foundation, a non-profit organisation whose aim is to develop and promote ideas and actions to achieve the secure, sustainable, and peaceful uses of outer space benefiting Earth.In this episode, Krystal and I discuss the state of the space environment, the threats and worst-case scenarios, what regulations exist and how effective they are, the similarities with climate policies, why every stakeholder in the Earth observation sector should care about this topic and more.Secure World Foundation - WebsiteSummit for Space Sustainability---01:23: Intro02:59: An overview of the Secure World Foundation06:35: The state of the space environment today09:56: Status quo of regulations and similarities with climate policies16:38: The worst-case scenario19:41: What are the solutions?22:19: Why this matters for the EO sector33:43: Are there risks to the adoption of EO because of the state of the space environment?37:54: How can we balance spreading awareness in the world of alarmist headlines?41:28: State of EO and why EO is not mainstream yet49:14: What don't we talk about enough in EO?52:11: Wrap-up

Today, I am speaking with Dr Claire Burke, who is the Director of Science at Climate X, a UK-based startup that is building a global climate risk analytics platform to support organisations in their climate adaptation efforts.In this episode, we talk about what Climate X does, their tech stack and how they use satellite data, how they convert scientific results into climate risk analytics, the "black-box problem" challenges in educating end-users and more. This was a thought-provoking conversation with Claire especially as we head into a world where many climate-related policy and strategic decisions could be powered by satellite-driven insights. Climate X---01:04: Intro04:18: Climate X: Overview 07:24: Converting scientific results into quantified financial risks09:51: Tech stack and what type of satellite data is used15:46: The "black-box" problem and challenges in educating end-users23:00: Data gaps and state of EO27:56: What can the EO industry do better33:27: How does Claire keep herself climate-optimistic?---

Today, I have two guests from Asterra, the Israeli startup offering a satellite-based solution for monitoring all kinds of infrastructure, whether it is for monitoring roads, rails, dams, water utilities and even for mining. While Asterra uses analytics derived from synthetic aperture radar (or SAR) imagery in their products, they use a specific type of SAR data in the L-band spectrum. Note: I have had the CEO of Asterra on the podcast before. Check out episode #60 to learn more about the company. This episode is especially about how they use L-band SARL-Band SAR is unique in its own way, in terms of its availability, usability and potential. So, to discuss this further I had two guests from Asterra on the podcast. Jasmin Inbar, who is the VP of Corporate Development and Yuval Lorig, the VP of Research and Development. In this episode, we discuss Asterra's strategy, the advantages of L-band SAR, its availability and applications, polarimetric SAR and its use, how Asterra is using SAR for mining applications and more. If you are curious to learn more about the applications of SAR, specifically L-band SAR, this episode might be a good intro. Asterra's SolutionsAsterra's Mining Application[Thanks to Asterra for  sponsoring this episode]---01:22: Intros03:58: Overview of Asterra06:50: Asterra's customers and product portfolio11:18: L-Band SAR: What, Why and How?15:20: Usability of L-Band SAR and how Asterra uses it17:21: Polarimetric SAR and its applications23:02: Use cases in the mining sector26:35: Is L-Band SAR going to become mainstream soon?30:41: State of adoption of EO for infrastructure monitoring33:24: Worries about the state of EO35:20: Wrap-up

Today, I am excited to bring you an episode on a topic that I have been researching for a while - satellite imagery in 3D. The guest I am speaking with is Josh Winer who is a Senior Director for Global Sales at Maxar Technologies.Maxar probably needs no introduction as a company, I think most of you know what Maxar does both within the Earth observation domain and outside that. But, if you had paid attention to the company over the past few years, going private aside, Maxar has been heavily investing in its 3D market strategy - whether it is the initial partnership and later acquisition of Vricon, the acquisition of AI and software development company Wovenware or the recent partnership with blackshark.ai on digital twins.So, I wanted to ask Josh about what Maxar's thinking is and how it sees the potential of 3D satellite imagery to be. In this episode, we discuss Maxar's strategy, use cases for 3D imagery in industries such as telecom, automotive and gaming, complementary/substitute sensors, the differences and similarities of going to market with 3D vs 2D and more.And now I bring you, Josh Winer.Maxar's partnership with blackshark.aiMaxar's acquisition of WovenwareMaxar's acquisition of Vricon---01:28: Intro04:08: Maxar: Overview06:31: Maxar's strategy for 3D satellite imagery 17:25: Use cases for 3D imagery25:06: Complementary and substitute sensors32:21: What is a digital twin and what is the partnership with blackshark.ai all about?37:08: Go-to-market similarities and differences of 3D vs 2D imagery42:41: Is 3D the next big thing? Will Maxar build a consumer device?49:10: Wrap-up

Today, I have two guests: Dan Pilone, co-founder of Element84 and Robert Cheetham, founder of Azavea, which Element84 recently acquired.Both Element84 and Azavea are essentially service companies that focus on building solutions to solve important problems in the realm of processing, visualization, and analysis of geospatial data, with open-source software at their core. I will let you listen to Dan and Robert introduce their companies and what they do, but I think they are solving some very important but boring problems.If you have listened to this podcast before or read my blogs, you know what I mean by boring problems - those that are underrated and underappreciated, but unless we find a way to solve them, there is very less likelihood for Earth observation to go mainstream. Think about creating a standard approach to ingest, process and search for geospatial data or a standard format to use for placing satellite imagery orders from different providers.In this episode, we talk about the two companies and how they came to be, the difference between a project and when it turns into a product, the importance of open source and its financial sustainability and more.Azavea WebsiteElement84 WebsiteElement84 Acquires AzaveaSTAC Standard---01:38: Intros04:01: Element84 and Azavea - Overview16:21: Differentiating between a project and a product 24:56: The importance of open source - why?31:13: The financial sustainability of open source39:40: What is STAC and why is it important?49:20: What more should we be doing in EO to make it mainstream?55:35: Wrap-up

Today, I am speaking with Pooja Mahapatra, who is the Global Lead of Geospatial for Climate at Fugro, a Netherlands-based company focused on geotechnical and surveying services for monitoring infrastructure.As you will hear from Pooja, geospatial data is central to Fugro's strategy and one of the fundamental technologies that power their products and services in the infrastructure, energy and water verticals. As such, they have an interesting approach to using satellite data in combination with other data sources such as aerial, drone and proprietary instruments for in-situ measurements.In this episode, Pooja and I discuss what Fugro does, the role of Earth observation for the company, how they make a decision to use satellite data for solving a problem, building scalable solutions based on EO, the evolution of EO over the years and more.Fugro WebsitePooja's LinkedIn---01:12: Pooja's Intro04:46: Overview of Fugro08:30: Fugro's customers and use cases 12:40: The fundamental role of Earth observation for Fugro20:04: Combining satellite data with other sources of data22:59: Making a case for EO within the company26:27: Picking scalable EO-based solutions29:58: Working with the EO ecosystem34:57: Evolution of EO over the years43:18: Adoption of EO: In-housing vs Outsourcing45:23: Wrap-up - what can the EO industry do better and magic wand wishes

Today, I am speaking with Dr Benjamin Laken, who is the Chief Science Officer at Cervest, a UK-based startup building a climate intelligence platform to support climate adaptation efforts for enterprises, governments and non-profits.Climate risk is an important topic and satellite data has a lot to offer for estimating it. Whether it is the climate risk for an individual, an asset, an infrastructure or even an entire city, understanding the probabilities of scenarios is becoming more and more important. As Cervest is a company that is specifically focused on tracking, quantifying and reporting climate risk, I thought it would be great to speak to someone who is involved in building this important tool.In this episode, Benjamin and I discuss Cervest and what the company is building, what their tech stack looks like, what type of satellite data they use, the challenges of using EO data, the hardest risk to measure and monitor, what the EO sector can do better, and more. Cervest WebsiteEarthScan, by Cervest---01:17: Intro03:23: Cervest: Overview05:38: What are assets and what are the risks (hint: physical, transition and natural capital?12:58: What does the tech stack look like?17:06: Who are the customers? And what is the product portfolio?25:31: What type of EO data is used?29:41: The hardest risk to measure and monitor33:06: Challenges of using EO36:45: Outlook on publishing research and peer-reviewing methodologies40:05: State of EO and what the industry can do better50:07: Differentiation with other datasets53:13: Wrap-up