Food scarcity, forest fires, climate change — it's all connected.
SAR has revolutionized how we study Earth. Now, SpaceAlpha's flagship technology, SAR-XL, combines next-gen innovations to improve our understanding of the planet and help us all thrive.
"INTERFEROMETRIC SYNTHETIC APERTURE RADAR DATA HAVE TRANSFORMED EARTH SCIENCE." — SCIENCE.ORG
Habitat & Wetland Mapping
From wetlands and habitat changes to deforestation and biomass estimation, with XL data, land can be classified and mapped, while identifying vegetation type, biomass, soil moisture content, and more.
Drought & Precipitation
Because of SAR's ability to image below smoke and at night — with simultaneous bands — XL data can enable heightened detection, tracking, and management of forest fires.
Glacier & Snowpack Melt
SAR-XL is designed to provide accurate measurements, down to the millimeter. Time-series analysis of XL data provides a better understanding of accelerated glacier melt, which impacts water supplies, especially during times of drought.
Flooding & Landslides
SAR-XL is designed to detect, track, and predict floods based on surrounding vegetation, land feature changes, and land subsidence.
Wildfire Management
SAR-XL technology is well suited to the detection and prediction of fires, thanks in part to its ability to collect data through cloud, smoke, and darkness, all with multiple bands.
Sea-level Rise
With SAR interferometry (inSAR), we can better measure and predict sea level rise and coastal subsidence, down to the millimetre. Captured over time, XL land data will reveal long-term trends that would be otherwise imperceptible. This will have a significant impact on coastal ecology and infrastructure.
Our planet is under pressure. And it demands XL solutions.
From flood management to agriculture and every application in between. SAR-XL is the only system designed to cover immense swaths of land, while simultaneously capturing high-res data of critical hot spots, enabling heightened analysis.
SAR-XL Applications ↓
IN FOCUS
Agriculture, Water, Forest Fires
Seas, deserts, forests, mountains — XL data is perfect for applications that span millions of miles but require sub-metric data for specific areas of interest. By integrating high-speed onboard processing with in-space AI and machine learning, SAR-XL technology allows for novel capabilities like 'tipping-and-cueing'.
Agricultural Monitoring
Key Global Challenges
-
Accessibility — Developing regions and small-scale farmers lack access to high-quality, affordable data and tools
-
Adoption — In developed regions, there has yet to be rapid adoption of available data and tools
The SAR-XL Difference
Improved Land Analysis
SAR-XL allows for greater accuracy, wide-area coverage, and high-resolution data delivery. This data, which is processed onboard the satellite, can be analyzed in an instant. Over time, this allows for more precise predictive farming.
Size Meets Precision
Simultaneous bands make for improved data utility. L-band data provides wide-area coverage, while X-band data allows high-res accuracy, for improved analysis.
Massive Coverage
Huge swaths of land can be coverd, with strips as wide as 400km. When combined with high sensitivity to soil and crop characteristics, this can significantly increase the utility.
In-space Processing
High-speed processing, AI, and ML allow for reduced latency with efficient, accurate analysis Pre-processing allows for better utility Augments optical and SAR datasets.
Key Areas of SAR Application
Crop Analysis — classification, yield estimates, growth projections
Soil Moisture — below thick foliage and crops
Land Analysis — field size, composition, etc.
Integrations — hydrological and crop-growth models
Monitoring — over the growing season, and year over year
Detection — agricultural activities, harvest sizes, weather damage
of the globe's freshwater is used for agriculture
70%
people are food insecure, while rural women and children are along the worst effected
2.3B
of rural livelihoods are tied to agriculture
~86%
"NOW, AGRICULTURE IS IN THE EARLY DAYS OF YET ANOTHER REVOLUTION, AT THE HEART OF WHICH LIE DATA AND CONNECTIVITY. ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE, ANALYTICS, CONNECTED SENSORS, AND OTHER EMERGING TECHNOLOGIES COULD FURTHER INCREASE YIELS, IMPROVE THE EFFICIENCY OF WATER AND OTHER INPUTS, AND BUILD SUSTAINABILTIY AND RESILIANCE ACROSS CROP CULTIVATION AND ANIMAL HUSBANDRY."
"[SAR] HAS EMERGED AS A PROMISING TOOL FOR RAPID AND ACCURATE MONITORING OF WETLAND EXTENT AND TYPE. BY ACQUIRING INFORMATION ON THE ROUGHNESS AND MOISTURE CONTENT OF THE SURFACE, SAR OFFERS UNIQUE POTENTIAL FOR WETLAND MONITORING."
Water Management
Key Issues
Efficient water management — aided by technological innovations like SAR-XL — is critical to reducing water wastage and flooding. With SAR data, we can determine everything from water body dimensions to water-flow rates, while measuring and predicting floods.
Fresh water will continue to be an increasingly precious resource as human populations grow and flock to arid urban centers. As a result, freshwater reserves will continue to be depleted, large-scale agriculture will demand more irrigation, and wetlands will remain threatened.
Key Applications for SAR-XL
Agricultural irrigation planning
Mapping surface water
Flood monitoring and prediction
Tracking transformation of wetlands and aquifers
Snowpack and permafrost changes
Coastline water level measurement
SAR-XL Management Highlights
L-band SAR
Penetrates soil to determine water content for uses like irrigation, while also determining crop health and near real-time flood monitoring.
Digital Elevation Models
Can be determined and applied to characterize watersheds and hydrological changes.
Faster Mapping
Thanks to SAR’s sensitivity to water content, which helps to map surface water and measure soil moisture content.
SAR Accuracy
An accuracy of over 95% improves monitoring over time.
Improved automated classification, tracking, and learning over time — including onboard processing, AI, and machine learning — which will result in more timely and useful data. While singleband SAR poses issues when studying water systems, combined bands can add much needed accuity.
What's Next
Forest Fire Monitoring
The Human Impact
The prevalence of forest fires is rising across the globe, along with the associated costs. Rising global temperatures have led to dry conditions, which in turn leads to increased fire activity. The ramifications for people and wildlife can be catastrophic. In turn, forest fires have proven to be significant contributors to global warming.
The Difference SAR-XL Makes
Because of SAR's ability to image below smoke and at night — and with multiple bands employed at once — SAR-XL data can provide heightened detection, tracking, and management of forest fires.
Once fires are detected, SAR-XL can support management tools and improve the implementation of post-fire stability indices. These indices include severity mapping and enable future technological research, including forest fire analysis of change rates, fire severity, and recovery dynamics.
Massive Coverage
Thanks to its huge swath width of up to 400 kms, SAR-XL is designed to capture millions of kilometres of data daily.
Millions in Cost Savings
Better data utility makes for reduced long-term costs related to emergency response and infrastructure loss.
Improved Safety
With improved data utility and detection comes quicker response and more robust mitigation efforts.
Key SAR-XL Benefits
of freshwater is used for agriculture
70%
of freshwater is used for agriculture
70%
of freshwater is used for agriculture
70%
Agriculture
First Item
With low latency and wide area coverage, SAR-XL data can be analyzed instantly, which over time allows for predictive farming. This is well designed to support existing agricultural tech technology, data collection, and analysis.
Second Item
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Third Item
Click to add your own text. To customize it click Edit Text. You can upload custom fonts, scale text, change heading tags and so much more. Get the exact look you want.
Click to add your own text. To customize it click Edit Text. You can upload custom fonts, scale text, change heading tags and so much more. Get the exact look you want.
Third Item
of freshwater is used for agriculture
$40B
of freshwater is used for agriculture
$40B
was the monetary cost of forest fires in Alaska and California, 2017-2018
$40B
Forest Fires
First Item
Because of SAR's ability to image below smoke and at night — and with multiple bands employed at once — SAR-XL data can provide heightened detection, tracking, and management of forest fires. Once detected, SAR information products can support ongoing management.
Second Item
Click to add your own text. To customize it click Edit Text. You can upload custom fonts, scale text, change heading tags and so much more. Get the exact look you want.
Third Item
Click to add your own text. To customize it click Edit Text. You can upload custom fonts, scale text, change heading tags and so much more. Get the exact look you want.
Click to add your own text. To customize it click Edit Text. You can upload custom fonts, scale text, change heading tags and so much more. Get the exact look you want.
Third Item
"INTERFEROMETRIC SYNTHETIC APERTURE RADAR DATA HAVE TRANSFORMED EARTH SCIENCE." — SCIENCE.ORG
"[SAR] HAS EMERGED AS A PROMISING TOOL FOR RAPID AND ACCURATE MONITORING OF WETLAND EXTENT AND TYPE. BY ACQUIRING INFORMATION ON THE ROUGHNESS AND MOISTURE CONTENT OF THE SURFACE, SAR OFFERS UNIQUE POTENTIAL FOR WETLAND MONITORING."
ADELI ET AL. →
Water Management
Key Issues
Efficient water management — aided by technological innovations like SAR-XL — is critical to reducing water wastage and flooding. With SAR data, we can determine everything from water body dimensions to water-flow rates, while measuring and predicting floods.
Fresh water will continue to be an increasingly precious resource as human populations grow and flock to arid urban centers. As a result, freshwater reserves will continue to be depleted, large-scale agriculture will demand more irrigation, and wetlands will remain threatened.
Key Applications for SAR-XL
Agricultural irrigation planning
Mapping surface water
Flood monitoring and prediction
Tracking transformation of wetlands and aquifers
Snowpack and permafrost changes
Coastline water level measurement
SAR-XL Management Highlights
L-band SAR
Penetrates soil to determine water content for uses like irrigation, while also determining crop health and near real-time flood monitoring.
Digital Elevation Models
Can be determined and applied to characterize watersheds and hydrological changes.
Faster Mapping
Thanks to SAR’s sensitivity to water content, which helps to map surface water and measure soil moisture content.
SAR Accuracy
An accuracy of over 95% improves monitoring over time.
Improved automated classification, tracking, and learning over time — including onboard processing, AI, and machine learning — which will result in more timely and useful data. While singleband SAR poses issues when studying water systems, combined bands can add much needed accuity.
What's Next
Agricultural Monitoring
Key Global Challenges
-
Accessibility — Developing regions and small-scale farmers lack access to high-quality, affordable data and tools
-
Adoption — In developed regions, there has yet to be rapid adoption of available data and tools
Crop Analysis — classification, yield estimates, growth projections
Soil Moisture — below thick foliage and crops
Land Analysis — field size, composition, etc.
Integrations — hydrological and crop-growth models
Monitoring — over the growing season, and year over year
Detection — agricultural activities, harvest sizes, weather damage
Key Areas of SAR Application
The SAR-XL Difference
Improved Land Analysis
SAR-XL allows for greater accuracy, wide-area coverage, and high-resolution data delivery. This data, which is processed onboard the satellite, can be analyzed in an instant. Over time, this allows for more precise predictive farming.
Size Meets Precision
Simultaneous bands make for improved data utility. L-band data provides wide-area coverage, while X-band data allows high-res accuracy, for improved analysis.
Massive Coverage
Huge swaths of land can be coverd, with strips as wide as 400km. When combined with high sensitivity to soil and crop characteristics, this can significantly increase the utility.
In-space Processing
High-speed processing, AI, and ML allow for reduced latency with efficient, accurate analysis Pre-processing allows for better utility Augments optical and SAR datasets.
"NOW, AGRICULTURE IS IN THE EARLY DAYS OF YET ANOTHER REVOLUTION, AT THE HEART OF WHICH LIE DATA AND CONNECTIVITY. ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE, ANALYTICS, CONNECTED SENSORS, AND OTHER EMERGING TECHNOLOGIES COULD FURTHER INCREASE YIELD, IMPROVE THE EFFICIENCY OF WATER AND OTHER INPUTS, AND BUILD SUSTAINABILITY AND RESILIENCE ACROSS CROP CULTIVATION AND ANIMAL HUSBANDRY."
MCKINSEY GROUP →
Agricultural Monitoring
Key Global Challenges
-
Accessibility — Developing regions and small-scale farmers lack access to high-quality, affordable data and tools
-
Adoption — In developed regions, there has yet to be rapid adoption of available data and tools
The SAR-XL Difference
Improved Land Analysis
SAR-XL allows for greater accuracy, wide-area coverage, and high-resolution data delivery. This data, which is processed onboard the satellite, can be analyzed in an instant. Over time, this allows for more precise predictive farming.
Size Meets Precision
Simultaneous bands make for improved data utility. L-band data provides wide-area coverage, while X-band data allows high-res accuracy, for improved analysis.
Massive Coverage
Huge swaths of land can be coverd, with strips as wide as 400km. When combined with high sensitivity to soil and crop characteristics, this can significantly increase the utility.
In-space Processing
High-speed processing, AI, and ML allow for reduced latency with efficient, accurate analysis Pre-processing allows for better utility Augments optical and SAR datasets.
Crop Analysis — classification, yield estimates, growth projections
Soil Moisture — below thick foliage and crops
Land Analysis — field size, composition, etc.
Integrations — hydrological and crop-growth models
Monitoring — over the growing season, and year over year
Detection — agricultural activities, harvest sizes, weather damage
Key Areas of SAR Application
of the globe's freshwater is used for agriculture
70%
people are food insecure, while rural women and children are along the worst effected
2.3B
of rural livelihoods are tied to agriculture
~86%
"NOW, AGRICULTURE IS IN THE EARLY DAYS OF YET ANOTHER REVOLUTION, AT THE HEART OF WHICH LIE DATA AND CONNECTIVITY. ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE, ANALYTICS, CONNECTED SENSORS, AND OTHER EMERGING TECHNOLOGIES COULD FURTHER INCREASE YIELS, IMPROVE THE EFFICIENCY OF WATER AND OTHER INPUTS, AND BUILD SUSTAINABILTIY AND RESILIANCE ACROSS CROP CULTIVATION AND ANIMAL HUSBANDRY."
Agricultural Monitoring: Critical Challenges
2.3B
people are food insecure; largely rural women and children
70%
of the planet's freshwater is used for agriculture
86%
of rural livelihoods are tied to agriculture
Water Management: Critical Challenges
70%
of all deaths related to natural disasters were water-related
844M
people lack access to clean, affordable water
50%
of the world's wetlands havebeen lost or degraded
Forest Fire Management: Critical Challenges
~85%
of forest fires are caused by human activity, but likely more
$40B
was the cost of forest fires, 2017 to 2018, in California and Alaska
4.5M
of U.S. homes are at high or extreme risk of wildfire (Verisk Insurance)
