Decreased cost of monitoring natural resources - Brendan Moroso
Description:
Information about the natural resources of earth was historically gathered in expensive one-off missions. However, in 1972, the first Landsat satellite was launched, facilitating far easier information gathering. Since then, costs have only come down with Planet and other private sector actors now managing fleets of satellites, gathering information about the entirety of the earth’s surface every day. This has enable a far grater understanding of phenomena in the natural world including glacial melt, biomass growth and desertification.
Enablers:
Advances in technology have brought down the cost of computer processing and data storage significantly, while improvements in satellite and space-related business models have enabled ever more orbital information gathering.
Inhibitors:
- Cloud cover
- Data volumes
- Data Connectivity
- Space Junk
Paradigms:
Old: Accurate information on environmental events occurring in remote or distributed areas is expensive, time consuming, or impossible to collect.
New: With clear weather, accurate information about natural resources can be gathered on an almost daily basis.
Experts:
Lucas Joppa - Microsoft Research
Timing:
- Expeditions of Alexander von Humboldt 1799- 1850
- Heroic Age of Arctic Exploration 1897 - 1922
- Landsat 1965 - Present