Deal makes data from 40 Chinese satellites available through UP42 now, another 40 by late 2021
BERLIN, Germany, 29 June 2021 – UP42 has signed an agreement with HEAD Aerospace of Beijing to make image data from more than 40 innovative Chinese Earth Observation satellites available on the UP42 marketplace. The broad selection of imaging capabilities from the constellations dramatically expands the range of applications in multiple sectors, with the most significant benefits expected in Infrastructure, Transportation, Utilities, Agriculture, Government.
The UP42 marketplace currently contains more than 50 geospatial data sets, including satellite imagery from six international organizations. The newly added satellites’ diverse and often unique imaging capabilities include wide-swath imaging at very high resolution, nighttime acquisitions, frequent intraday revisits, tri-stereo collection, and hyperspectral imaging.
“This partnership is an important milestone for us as a company but, more importantly, for our customers. By diversifying our data sets, we are unlocking a broader spectrum of use cases for our users in multiple sectors. This is the true meaning of ‘democratizing access to Earth insights’,” said UP42 CEO Sean Wiid.
HEAD Aerospace is the international distributor of satellite imagery collected by commercial Earth Observation missions. The UP42-HEAD agreement includes imagery from multiple constellations, including SuperView, Earthscanner, Gaofen-7, DailyVision, NightVision, Hyperscan, and Tri-Stereo ZY3. These seven constellations will total more than 80 satellites by the end of 2021.
“Sharing a similar approach facilitating users’ easy access to an agnostic data source by a centralized portal with a wide choice of satellite attributes, we are glad to have partnered with UP42. This partnership represents another new milestone for us in expanding our global network.” said Kammy Brun, Managing Director of HEAD Aerospace.
While each satellite constellation was designed with one or more imaging specialties, a remarkable variety of operational capabilities are shared across the constellations to support numerous applications and industries. Notable examples include:
Large-Area Very High-Resolution Mapping – Planning and monitoring critical infrastructure, including utility transmission grids and transportation networks, can be performed for entire states, countries, and regions. Up to 40,000 square kilometers can be covered with wide-swath (136 km) imagery captured at a half-meter spatial resolution on a single pass.
Intraday and Early Morning Monitoring – The EarlyEye tasking product leverages multiple HEAD Aerospace constellations to deliver early morning, frequent images, an hour earlier than usual commercial offer at 10:30. Designed for frequent monitoring of critical assets and rapidly changing situations related to energy security, defense/intelligence, and infrastructure management, a high-resolution revisit schedule of four times per day is currently possible, with 15-minute revisit between 09:00 and 13:30 anywhere on Earth to be possible by the end of 2021.
High Vertical Accuracy Mapping – Multiple satellites perform stereo imaging at high resolution for high-quality land use and cadastral mapping. One constellation captures single-pass tri-stereo imagery validated with onboard laser altimetry data, generating digital elevation models (DEMs), digital terrain models (DTMs), and other large-scale 3D mapping products with vertical accuracy of 5 meters. Additionally, the SuperView constellation captures daily stereo imagery with vertical accuracy of better than 2m.
Hyperspectral Imaging – Imaging in 25 spectral bands spanning the visible, near-infrared, and mid-infrared portions of the spectrum is ideal for regional natural resource management: detecting crop stress and planning pesticide/fertilizer applications, species mapping of forests and vegetative land cover, and protecting environmentally sensitive areas. These data sets can also be used in agriculture monitoring, mineral exploration, and water quality monitoring.
Nighttime Imaging – Monitoring and surveillance activities by government entities, energy utilities, and security organizations can be carried out around the clock with true-color, high-resolution at 1m optical and video imaging during daylight and dark of night. Nighttime collection is ideal for surveillance such as illegal camping, border surveillance, change detection, especially in rapidly evolving events, powerline incidents, and designing streetlight placement in urban settings. Day and night video can detect vehicle and ship movement.
UP42 users have an ever-growing selection of satellite imagery to choose from on the geospatial marketplace. UP42 technical experts are available to assist customers in selecting the best data set to meet the needs of specific end-use applications in all industries and sectors. These experts can also help in tasking a satellite for new image acquisition or querying the archive to obtain existing imagery.
To order imagery or review details of imaging capabilities for the seven constellations currently included on the UP42 marketplace, please visit the following link: https://up42.com/order-data.
About UP42
UP42 is changing the way geospatial data is accessed and analyzed. The platform and marketplace bring together multiple sources of data such as satellite imagery, weather data, and more—together with algorithms to identify objects, detect change, and find patterns. Industry leaders use UP42 to inform business decisions and build scalable customer solutions. Know when and where to fertilize crops. Measure air quality and map emissions. Count cars, trucks, planes, and ships. Developers and data scientists across all industries now have access to a platform to build, run, and scale projects in one place. Visit www.up42.com.
About HEAD Aerospace
HEAD Aerospace is a one-stop-shop service provider with integrated access from multiple Earth observation satellite constellations to complex turnkey geospatial solutions. A global network of 100 partners access HEAD’s centralized geodata hub of satellite imagery collected from more than 40 on-orbit satellites. Distinguished satellite attributes allow the end-user to develop diversified applications. Early morning tasking to be the first one to observe the world. Nighttime imaging to see what is happening at night. One single image capturing the entire country. Direct receiving station for near real-time monitoring. In addition to the Earth observation and geospatial business unit, HEAD operates its own Space-based Internet-of-Things (IoT) constellation with five on-orbit satellites as part of the 48 satellites constellation plan in 2023.