Earth Observation: Watching the Planet From Above

How satellite images and data help farmers, insurers, governments and businesses, and how falling costs have expanded their use.

Earth observation satellites collect images and measurements of Earth’s surface, oceans and atmosphere. This field, also called remote sensing, has grown rapidly as satellites have become cheaper and data analysis more powerful.

Uses

Agriculture: monitoring crop health, estimating harvests and targeting irrigation and fertiliser. India uses satellite data to estimate crop areas and for crop insurance assessments under the Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana.
Disasters: mapping floods, fires and earthquake damage to direct relief.
Climate and environment: tracking deforestation, glacier melt, sea ice and methane leaks.
Urban planning: mapping land use and infrastructure.
Economics: economists use night lights and images of parking lots or shipping to estimate economic activity.
Insurance and finance: assessing risks and verifying claims.

Public and private data

Some of the most important data is free. The European Union’s Copernicus programme and the U.S. Landsat satellites provide free, open data. Landsat’s data was made free in 2008, and usage increased dramatically, generating large economic benefits.

Private companies operate fleets of small satellites that image the whole Earth frequently, selling high-resolution imagery and analysis.

Economic value

Studies of free open satellite data, such as Landsat, estimated billions of dollars a year in benefits to users. The value comes from better decisions: planting at the right time, finding illegal logging, or getting aid to the right place faster.

Checking crop damage without a visit

After a hailstorm, thousands of farmers file crop insurance claims. Sending inspectors to every field is slow and expensive. Satellite images taken before and after the storm show which areas were damaged, allowing faster and fairer payouts. Earth observation lowers the cost of verifying claims.

Concerns

High-resolution imagery raises privacy and security concerns, and access to the best data can be expensive for poorer countries and small organisations.

Thinking satellite images are only for militaries and scientists

Earth observation data now supports farming, insurance, disaster relief, business analytics and journalism. Much of it is freely available to anyone.

Key takeaways

Earth observation satellites collect images and data about Earth.
Uses include farming, disasters, climate monitoring, planning and economic measurement.
Free programmes like Landsat and Copernicus generate large economic benefits.
Private satellite fleets sell frequent high-resolution imagery.