Tag: AWS Ground Station

When wildfires broke out across northern and central California in August, a remote-sensing Earth observation satellite watched 381 miles (613 kilometers) above the planet’s surface. Built entirely in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) for the Mohammed Bin Rashid Space Centre (MBRSC), KhalifaSat captured imagery that could help governmental agencies and first responders monitor and assess the impact of the destructive blazes. To help KhalifaSat maintain continual coverage, MBRSC uses cloud services from AWS including AWS Ground Station.

Capella Space, a provider of on-demand Earth observation data via synthetic aperture radar (SAR), is going all-in on AWS. Capella runs its entire IT infrastructure on AWS to automate and scale its operations. AWS Ground Station makes it simple and cost effective for Capella to command and control its constellation and receive its satellite data directly into AWS using a fully managed network of antenna systems located around the world.

The breadth of challenges that can be addressed by overhead imagery is broad and continues to grow as new and improved sensors are deployed. To make the best use of this data, you need to have high-quality training data—data that you know is true (often called ground truth data) so that your algorithms can learn from it. A lack of this high-quality labeled training data continues to impede progress in many areas of remote sensing analytics, including machine learning. Two of the SpaceNet collaborators, Capella Space and AWS, are providing access to a unique dataset to help foster innovation in geospatial-based artificial intelligence. Learn more about Earth observation data, the SpaceNet 6 Challenge, and available datasets.

Over the past decade, a crop of new companies focused on Earth observation (EO) have made valuable EO data more accessible to a broad audience than before. As a result, we are seeing a dramatic increase in EO science. The value of EO data is the ability to monitor change. Recently, new instrumentation aboard satellites such as radar now allow us to “see” through clouds, allowing observation of any part of the Earth. The reliable, repeatable, and accurate data now flowing from satellites is opening up the reality of operational services powered by satellite imagery. Learn how to get started with EO data using AWS Ground Station.

A picture of our entire Earth’s surface is taken every day. Such a possibility—or even the concept—would have seemed unfeasible and unaffordable just ten years ago. With continued technology improvements, we are witnessing a rapid increase in the number of miniature satellites capturing Earth observation (EO) data. This data is now accepted by many industries including agriculture, insurance, utilities, and urban planning to deliver actionable insights.

Cal Poly has announced the Satellite Data Solutions (SDS) Initiative to support the growing opportunity to solve the planets most critical challenges with low earth orbit (LEO) satellite data. The DxHub will work closely with the AWS Ground Station team to test and improve satellite connectivity and improve access to satellite-acquired data to solve problems. Through the DxHub and the SDS Initiative, students and faculty will have access to AWS services, technologies, and technical expertise to experiment with ‘born-in-the-cloud’ solutions that build on, and add to, space-based data analytics.

Satellites are used by an increasing number universities and governments for applications including weather, surface imaging, communications, and video broadcasts. To do this today, they must build or obtain long-term leases on ground antennas to communicate with the satellites. This is a significant undertaking and cost because customers often require antennas in multiple countries to maintain satellite connectivity. Beginning with the recently announced AWS Ground Station, customers can save up to 80% of their ground station costs by only paying for satellite communications when their organization needs them.