Monitoring our land and water
The role of ɸ-sat-1 is largely to demonstrate the value of artificial intelligence on Earth-observing missions – in this case, to filter out acquired images that are less than perfect because of cloud cover. Because these images are not downlinked to Earth, the process of data handling is more efficient, giving users more timely access to images of our planet for a multitude of uses.
Ф-sat-1’s hyperspectral camera images Earth in the visible, near-infrared and thermal-infrared parts of the electromagnetic spectrum. These images can be used for many applications such as to detect urban heat islands and to monitor water quality. They can also be used to monitor changes in vegetation, which is important for the agriculture sector and food security. In addition, this information can be used to study the role of evapotranspiration in climate change.
Use of these data will ultimately benefit society at large, and since the variables measured all play an important role in the Earth system, scientists will use the data to understand more about how our planet and climate work.