As new Corporate Member GHGSat and Patron Member Planet, both got a great headstart. In 2021, they contributed to a new report titled “GHG Monitoring from Space: A mapping of capabilities across public, private and hybrid satellite missions”. This was developed in collaboration with the Group on Earth Observations (GEO), Climate TRACE, and WGIC.
GHGSat
Canadian company GHGSat is remote-sensing greenhouse gas from space in high-resolution. This is an approach it pioneered. The company provides unique emissions data and intelligence to businesses, governments, regulators, and investors worldwide. This way, they help to optimize their performance and uphold environmental standards.
ghgsat.com
Planet
Planet embodies the philosophy of ‘agile aerospace’. It’s a concept that advocates for the use of low-cost, lean electronics. They deploy these to innovate more rapidly in the fields of aerospace and aviation. In ten years, Planet has flown on 30 successful launches and deployed a whopping 452 satellites. Planet has over 150 satellites in orbit collecting over 350 million square kilometers of imagery daily. This results in an unprecedented dataset of on average 1,300 images of every location on Earth’s landmass.
planet.com
Satellogic
Satellogic strives to make Earth Observation imagery accessible and affordable to drive better global decision-making. They ask themselves questions like: “How will we provide food for nine billion people? How will we meet our energy needs without depleting resources for future generations? How is our world changing?” The answers to questions like these require greater access to high-resolution, high-frequency satellite imagery and geospatial data. With a cost-effective, vertically integrated business model, Satellogic is disrupting the industry to make this possible and more affordable to decision-makers worldwide.
satellogic.com
GeoSAS
Geospatial Analytical Services (GeoSAS) is an Ethiopian private consulting company. It operates meeting the high demand for professional services in the planning, designing, implementing, monitoring and evaluation of development projects in infrastructure, health, agriculture and the environment. GeoSAS is committed to provide innovative and competitive consultancy services at national, regional, continental and global levels. Their ability to work closely with local communities as well as global partners have positioned them as one of the most competitive company in the region.
geosas.net
Voxelmaps
San Francisco-based Voxelmaps Inc was originally a spin-off from navigation and mapping company Navmii. Voxelmaps’ mission is to build a true 4D volumetric model of the planet. Their goal is to create the most detailed map of the world. They do this by using a unique patent-pending technology using MRVOGs (Multi-Resolution, Voxel Occupancy Grids). Mr. Peter Atalla, CEO, and Founder of Voxelmaps says: “Voxelmaps involvement and membership in WGIC is based on the leadership role WGIC has taken across the entire geospatial ecosystem on a global level. Since Voxelmaps has a global customer reach and employee presence on four continents, it made a lot sense to become a part of the WGIC family.” On collaborating with other WGIC Members, Atalla said: “Voxelmaps wants to take an active role in helping other geospatial industry leaders in leveraging geospatial technologies to help solve global economic and societal issues.”
voxelmaps.com
Deepspatial.ai
Deepspatial Inc. is an artificial intelligence technology SaaS company working out of Toronto, Canada. They combine geospatial artificial intelligence and geographic information systems. The company specializes in providing robust, AI-powered solutions to businesses by leveraging the power of geospatial data.
deepspatial.ai
SI Analytics
SI Analytics is a subsidiary of the Satrec Initiative. This AI-based satellite/aerial imagery analytics solution and platform provideris based in South-Korea. The company has built up expertise in artificial intelligence, deep learning, and Earth observation image analysis specifically for defense and intelligence applications. Under the value of “Human-Machine GeoInt Platform”, SI Analytics has the expertise to effectively train machines to learn all abilities of humans to analyze the satellite/aerial imagery. Mr Taegyun Jeon, Founder and CEO of SI Analytics, observes that the geospatial industry is growing rapidly. “It’s great to be able to directly share technology and data to our customers. However, there is a limitation to it. It’s still difficult for others to see the superiority of what we collectively do.”
Making a difference
Mr Jeon feels the WGIC can make a difference here. “I think the biggest difference is to be able to share opinions on use cases and policy implications at the WGIC, where major companies are gathered. The WGIC is seen as an executive organization. It’s truly acting differently from individual companies in that it can express opinions authoritatively. Take for instance the COP26 event, which dealt with environmental-related fields. In a way, WGIC is defining a representative geospatial purpose for humanity. Many companies are gathering their minds here to resolve this common purpose. On a smaller scale, the same goes for individual members, like our company. We supply artificial intelligence hardware and services, focusing on software. These three elements inevitably have to be together to create greater synergy.”
si-analytics.ai
WGIC involvement
The World Geospatial Industry Council has warmly welcomed these new Members and is actively working to get them settled in the most appropriate Committees and Working Groups. The latter operate under the wider umbrella of Climate Change in the focus areas of Energy Transition, Sustainable Infrastructure and Disaster Resilience. GHGSat already found its place in the Working Group on Energy Transition, the others will surely follow suit in the new year.