Commercial Satellite Imaging: Opens New Applications for Betterment of Humanity

Take a walk down your memory lane. Around 20 years ago, the best game you ever played was the snake launched by Nokia. We have come a long way since then. Now we hold an uncountable amount of information in our palms. We can locate whereabouts of one another, get an online weather forecast, play any song we wish, get in touch with our long-distance relatives, even–thanks to Facebook–we can know each other’s relationship status with just few clicks. The technology has opened new doors to gather require information and to do so, satellite imaging played the most important part.

Utilizing satellite images for commercial purposes gave us a vital opportunity to monitor the environment, secure energy resources, monitor border areas. Apart from this, we can keep eyes on enemies of humanity such as terrorists and sex traffickers, keep in check population growth in urban as well as rural areas. The areas of applications are limitless, which made commercial satellite imaging a big thing over the last few years. According to Allied Market Research, the commercial satellite imaging market is projected to reach $5.26 billion by 2026, registering a CAGR of 11.2% during the forecast period. The recent launches of commercial satellite by several leading countries would be the prime reason behind the growth.

Recently, China launched its Gaofen Earth-imaging satellite delivered by the Chinese Long March 4C rocket. The rocket carried a high-resolution Earth-imaging instrument that is capable of resolving features on the ground smaller than a meter. Moreover, the data collected by the instrument would be used for urban and infrastructure planning, crop yield assessment, land surveys, and disaster management.  

This would be another major satellite launched by an Asian country. Prior to this, India had successfully launched an Earth-observation satellite to boosts its surveillance capabilities. The Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) used its strongest rocket, Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) to launch the country’s third radar imaging satellite from Sriharikota. The satellite is equipped with an x-band synthetic aperture radar, which is capable of looking through the clouds to monitor Earth’s surface throughout day and night. This step is said to be essential for civilian purposes such as agriculture and disaster management.

From observing agricultural land to monitoring borderlines for the country’s security, satellite imaging now plays an important role in today’s time and age. In fact, it has proven to be the most effective and reliable in making crucial decisions for human race. Apart from observing landscapes, satellite imaging can be used to monitor sea surface temperature and ocean colors as it could help pinpoint particular fish species and the collected data could help fishermen to reap more benefits. On the other hand, satellite imagine is now being used by tax revenue agencies. Apart from using GIS technologies, various cities across the globe are using satellite data for tax collection. The use of satellite imaging for the welfare of humanity has so far remained the major motive for its growing demand and the surge in its applications suggests that the demand would continue to rise over the coming years.  

Reference:

spaceflightnow.com

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