1. Advanced coherence rasters
It is a common understanding, that to reach a useful AI model, it is crucial to have validated ground reference data for training. Just as important is to have meaningful, calibrated, low noise features that have substantial physical relation to the phenomenon being modelled. At KappaZeta we are paying extra attention to get most out of Sentinel-1 SAR data.
The figure above compares 6-day VH coherence from SNAP with the output from our processing chain. As a reference some borders of agricultural parcels and roads are visualised. As you can see the spatial variability and the dynamic range from the KZ processor is much higher. You can also notice small areas with white NoData pixels. We don’t output pixel values that are below the noise floor, do not contain meaningful data and instead would introduce noise into your modelling tasks. With analysis-ready Sentinel-1 data we can make space a valuable asset for everyone!
Tanel Tamm, GIS expert, board member
2. Ivory tower, analysis ready data and how to make the most from the European investment into Copernicus programme
Sentinel-1 is a beautiful data factory, but its data is still under-used, because it is too complex to use for large majority of potential beneficiaries. When Copernicus programme and Sentinel-1 mission was planned the investment was justified with various public services and benefits it would enable and provide to the European and global citizens. Now it is almost 7 years from the launch of the first satellite and with few exceptions the data is still mainly used by university research groups and specialized Earth Observation companies like KappaZeta.
The data is beautiful, it is systematic, it is in large volumes and it is free and open! It enables numerous analysis and informed decisions based on actual data, starting from geology and ending with agriculture. Why is it under-utilised then? Why most of ICT and data science companies and governmental users overlook it? Because the entrance barrier is too high. If you shoot the user with a 1-4 GB zipped file in a native space agency format most of the users are not so determined to look for and download the dedicated software, which enables to browse, visualise and export the imagery products. In the era of convenient online services, they would like to just quickly see the image to determine if it is something useful for them and worth spending the time. The data layer should ideally be integrated with just one click and be useable out of the box.
Committee on Earth Observation Satellites and European Space Agency have recognized the problem and have came up with the concept of Analysis Ready Data. In practice it means working out a set of standards – if the data provider follows them the clients should be happier and have less pain with pre-processing the data. Among others there are standards for Synthetic Aperture Radar data, which are directly applicable for Sentinel-1.
Of course, the standards themselves have no value if nobody follows them. Here the role of KappaZeta comes into play. We have the vision, and we want to make the most from Sentinel-1 data, present it in a way that users understand and can access easily. A lot has been already done with making Sentinel-2 data easily accessible (credit to Sinergise for Sentinel Hub), but for Sentinel-1 the job is largely undone. In practice it means pre-processing the data right and providing the raster images and value-added data layers as web-services. Among other developments, our team is building the Sentinel-1 backscatter WMS.
This topic is close to our hearts. We came down from the ivory tower of science, because making the results of science to work for “ordinary” people is at least as important as science itself. If everything goes well, we will be rolling out a series of value-added Sentinel-1 data layer web services over the course of next two years. We will make Sentinel-1 data more easily accessible, and the investment made into Copernicus programme more useful.
If you see that satellite data can be useful in your work, but you don’t know how to use it – please contact us!
Kaupo Voormansik, SAR expert, CEO
3. Meeting clients’ needs
Our mission is to make space a valuable asset for everyone. On one hand, we do this by using our expertise in SAR data processing and providing input data for other companies. On the other hand, more and more we approach to end-users. On this road, a valuable milestone has been serving Estonian paying agency with countrywide automated mowing detection system. This experience has encouraged us to approach new client segments in the agricultural domain. And again, we are not alone on this way – we do this hand in hand with Estonian innovation-minded farmers and have a solid support from the mentorship programs. By the way, Estonia has very favourable environment for business development in sense of support from public and private sector. During previous 12 months our team has been advised by three organisations: North Star Consulting Group, Superangel and Enterprise Estonia (EAS). In addition, we participate in a joint counselling program Põhjanael, which guides us on the way to form relevant value propositions for our client groups.
EAS Design Masterclass has been very helpful in the process of creating a meaningful service. By the second workshop we had sorted out that in this program we were going to focus on crop monitoring application for farmers and agricultural insurance companies. Before deciding, we had conducted more than 20 interviews with farmers to get their perspective. This had given us a quite clear understanding of what kind of remote sensing assist would actually provide value for farmers. Having a clear and honest dialogue with your client is invaluable as this is something that prevents one from developing another state of art application which actually delivers only futile value for end users. It might be very tempting to build something just for its pure technological elegance, but if it ignores clients’ needs, it is unprofitable. The Masterclass has emphasized the importance of lean approach to service development and the art of hypothesis. There are many efficient tools out there to facilitate design process and fast prototyping, e.g., Miro for online visual collaboration and Figma for interface design.
Jürgen Lina, business development manager
