Welcome to a new edition of ‘Last Week in Earth Observation’, containing a summary of major developments in EO from the last week and some exclusive analysis and insights from TerraWatch.
Four Curated Things
Major developments in EO from the past week
💰 Contractual Stuff: Funding, Contracts and Deals
Funding
- Ocean Ledger, an EO-based coastal monitoring solution provider, raised €900K in a pre-seed round;
Contracts
- The US Space Force selected eight companies for a $440M public-private partnership contract that included EO companies, Umbra and Albedo;
📈 Strategic Stuff: Partnerships and Announcements
Announcements
- Niantic Labs unveiled a new geospatial-focused subsidiary, Niantic Spatial, that will focus on building a geospatial models;
- Perennial, an EO-based soil monitoring solution provider, launched Soil Ecosystem Maps, a tool that provides soil health and soil organic carbon data.
Partnerships
- Agrochemical firm Syngenta signed a multi-year partnership with Planet for precision agriculture solutions;
- EarthDaily is partnering with Camelina Company to enable remote monitoring of biofuel feedstock production in South America;
- EO analytics provider Ursa Space expanded its partnership with EO marketplace SkyFi to include iron ore stockpile measurements;
🗞️ Interesting Stuff: More News
- The EU is exploring the possibility of creating its own network of military reconnaissance satellites;
- Several NOAA hurricane hunter aircrafts were fired and then rehired, as NOAA braces for more cuts and axes monthly climate briefings;
- SpaceX launched a total of 74 payloads with the Transporter-13 rideshare mission, over half of which were EO satellites - here is the breakdown.
🔗 Click-Worthy Stuff: Check These Out
- This piece that on a NASA project is studying coastal wetlands, such as mangroves, salt marshes, and seagrass beds to better understand their carbon sequestration capabilities;
- This article that presents the impacts of the budget cuts and layoffs at NOAA and NASA;
- This article that details how and why a new four-lane highway cutting through the protected Amazon rainforest is being built for the COP30 climate summit in the Brazilian city of Belém.
EO Summit: Keynote Speakers
I am excited to start the speaker announcements for EO Summit 2025 taking place in New York City on June 10 - 11:
- Jennifer Lacey from the US Geological Survey who will be discussing the past, present and future of Landsat, the economic value of Landsat and the use of Landsat data across various sectors.
- Sarah Kapnick from JP Morgan, who will be discussing the significance of Earth observation for enterprises and its applications in the financial sector.
Stay tuned for more updates on the speakers and the program!
Tickets are on sale, reserve your place now!
One Discussion Point
Exclusive analysis and insights from TerraWatch
EO for Carbon Markets
Satellites are fundamental to understanding the carbon cycle - from monitoring the carbon dioxide emissions that escape to the atmosphere to estimating the level of carbon stored in the natural environment (trees, soil, marine ecosystems). Called carbon flux, satellites are a crucial part of the system that tracks the direction and rate of flow of carbon between the oceans the atmosphere, the land, and other living things.
To simplify the role of satellites in monitoring and observing the carbon cycle, the elements of observation can be classified into three: blue carbon, forest carbon and soil carbon.
The figure below shows the three categories of carbon that can be monitored and estimated using satellite data, along with examples of what they represent. Note that the figure does not attempt to demonstrate the carbon cycle in itself, but rather lists aspects of the carbon cycle that can be monitored using EO.
EO and Carbon Monitoring
The decline in the growth of voluntary carbon markets amid contiuning scrutiny raises a larger question of whether this market will continue to grow and exist in its current form, over the coming years. While carbon projects related to agriculture and soil carbon might be less prone to greenwashing and junk credits, especially compared to forest carbon projects, the overall negative connotations associated with carbon offsets would require time to shave off.
From a technical perspective, however, the need for EO is not under threat. Satellites are the most objective and scalable mode of remote sensing technology, considering the global nature of carbon projects. While the need and willingness to pay for commercial EO data is still under validation, given that several open EO data sources exist that get the job done, the need for continuous monitoring and higher resolution solutions will continue to grow, especially if the carbon markets recover and demand rises.
Become a paid subscriber to read the full piece which includes a deep dive on the role of EO in the voluntary carbon market, the importance of EO in making carbon markets work and the overall commercial landscape.
Scene from Space
One visual leveraging EO
Unexpected Sea Level Rise in 2024
According to a NASA-led analysis, global sea levels rose faster than expected in 2024 - last year’s rate of rise was 0.23 inches (0.59 centimeters) per year, compared to the expected rate of 0.17 inches (0.43 centimeters) per year.
This long-term record is thanks to an uninterrupted series of ocean-observing satellites starting with TOPEX/Poseidon in 1992 to the current ocean-observing satellite in that series, Sentinel-6 Michael Freilich, launched in 2020.
Until next time,
Aravind.
