In a world increasingly reliant on Earth observation data, ISRO’s Bhoonidhi Data Hub—which provides open access to Earth observation satellite data, serves as a comprehensive source of satellite images and essential geospatial data.
It sets itself apart when measured against Earth observation datasets provided by NASA or ESA.
Changes in the space policy indicate that the Bhoonidhi portal is moving towards providing free access to 5-meter data in the future, which is currently not available. However, some datasets like EOS-06, Landsat-8/9, and Sentinel -1/2 amongst others are available for free use.
India’s new space policy introduced this year—which is a game-changer in many aspects has set this revolution in Earth observation data in motion.
The data pricing table shows that a 17KM X 17KM scene from Cartosat-3, with a resolution of 0.3 meters, is priced at 3860 rupees. This pricing is significantly lower than commercial pricing for similar private satellites, as indicated by comparison to Geo-eye, which offers imagery at approximately the same resolution for $25 per square kilometre. For the entire area covered by Cartosat-3 (289 sq.km), the cost is approximately 5.78 lakhs, whereas Cartosat-3 offers the same coverage for just 3800 rupees, making it a more cost-effective option.
In most places, such data is exclusively available through private entities, giving Indian space companies a competitive edge and attracting global space businesses to explore opportunities in India.
This move supports the growth of the space ecosystem. The data is accessible via the Bhoonidhi portal and is categorised for thematic, sectoral, disaster management, and government projects.
For instance, the insurance industry amongst many has found immense value in Earth observation data for accurately calculating premiums. Indian companies like SatSure, which deal with geospatial data and have yet to launch their satellites, employ ISRO’s dataset. The company offers its services to banks to asses loans for agriculture—which helps them with risk analysis and demography analysis.
Comparison with NASA and ESA Datasets
Comparatively, other agencies like ESA provide data with lower resolutions, such as 3.7 meters from PlanetScope, 0.65 meters from SkySat, and 6.5 meters from RapidEye, but these services are not free. NASA, on the other hand, offers astronaut photography with a single-pixel resolution of up to 3 meters, but its clarity may be limited, and it lacks a consistent revisit schedule.
In contrast, ISRO stands out by offering a diverse range of Earth observation satellites. RESOURCESAT-2 and RISAT-1 cater to land and water resource monitoring, while Cartosat-3 showcases India’s high-resolution imaging capabilities with a remarkable 0.3-meter spatial resolution. ISRO’s satellites cover various applications, including environmental monitoring and disaster management, with imaging capabilities ranging from 1 km to 0.3 meters. This comprehensive approach positions ISRO as a significant player in the global Earth observation landscape.
Gamechanger
Bhoonidhi promises to revolutionise the accessibility of this invaluable resource by integrating the data hub with computational resources, allowing users to access data in real time without the need for extensive downloads.
“What happens is the data that is collected by ISRO’s ground stations comes into this portal in near real-time. There is some analytics built into it,” Radha Krishna Kavuluru, project head at ISRO’s NISAR, explained at Cypher, India’s biggest AI conference.
Initially designed for disseminating free data, it received a significant upgrade in March 2021, allowing the distribution of commercial data as well. By unofficial estimate about 2000 public and private entities in India in the realm of geospatial data, use this data.
Applications
Earth observation data have various applications, whether it be administrative or commercial use cases.
It empowers critical sectors with tools to combat climate change, manage disasters, monitor agriculture, and strengthen defence. Additionally plays a pivotal role in tracking climate change, aiding carbon credit initiatives, and bolstering disaster management.
The commercial sphere is equally impacted, with applications spanning commodity dynamics, asset monitoring, insurance pricing, and consumer insights. Businesses leverage this data to estimate supply chain risks, predict retail customer footfall using car counts, oversee dispersed assets, calculate insurance premiums accurately, and profile consumers effectively.
In the context of Walmart and other such enterprises, Earth observation datasets have proven valuable for consumer insights. The ability to analyse satellite images for consumer behaviour aids in making data-driven decisions.
Asset monitoring, another standout application, offers an efficient means of overseeing geographically dispersed assets. This is particularly crucial in industries where infrastructure maintenance and reliability are paramount.
Revolutionising EO data
Not just that, interactions with major US banks about EO data and Bhoonidhi have resulted in innovative ideas enriching different areas of their business using data from ISRO, sources indicate.
This portal offers several features to users, including simplified target area identification, event-driven input specifications, natural language text-based search options, and a Vista comparison slider for comparing different satellite imagery, which aids in change detection. It also provides a real-time satellite tracker for Earth observation missions.
To meet the growing demands of the geospatial industry and startups, Bhunidhi is planning to offer a cloud computing environment and API-based data access for machine-to-machine data retrieval. If you’re in need of Earth observation data, Bhunidhi is the place to explore, offering a unique perspective on observing the Earth.
To address the challenges posed by the vast volume of data, ISRO is launching “Codelab” early next year, as Kavuluru explained, “This is almost synonymous with Google Colab, but the additional benefit is the Bhoonidhi portal will be integrated into this, and you can leverage the infrastructure of ISRO directly on your browser.” He noted the advantage of being able to scale computing and storage horizontally, eliminating the need to download extensive data.
NISAR
Given the proficiency, NASA chalked a partnership with ISRO for a joint Earth-observing mission called—NISAR in 2014. The Low Earth Orbit observatory with advanced radar imaging capabilities slated to launch in January 2024 features two radars that are optimized each in their own way to allow the mission to observe a wider range of changes than either one alone.
NISAR’s primary mission is to map the entire globe in 12 days, providing consistent spatial and temporal data for monitoring various Earth processes.
It carries dual-band Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) technology, enabling a large swath with high-resolution data, facilitating in-depth studies in several domains, including Earth’s ecosystems, ice mass, vegetation biomass, sea-level rise, groundwater, and natural hazards like earthquakes, tsunamis, volcanoes, and landslides.
NISAR will contribute to scientific research and geospatial applications in the geosciences, offering valuable insights into surface deformations through repeat-pass InSAR techniques.
NISAR is expected to have applications in various disciplines, including ecosystems, deformation studies, and cryosphere sciences, and can help analyze changes in the Earth’s surface over time. The observatory will also monitor changes in Indian coastlines, deltas, and sea ice characteristics, aiding in the detection of marine oil spills for preventive measures.
Conclusively, EO data is India’s next big bet and it could prove commercially and strategically beneficial to bolster this capability further. Through collaborations with NASA, and upcoming missions and providing open-source earth observation data. ISRO is looking to make India a leader in the domain. The global market for commercial Earth Observation data and services is poised to reach $7.9 billion by 2031 and ISRO and IN-SPACe have already poised the country to be one of the leading providers.
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