UP42 and Umbra Unveil Partnership at World Satellite Business Week, Enhancing Environmental, Asset, and Land Monitoring

• Geospatial leaders release a special video to explain the benefits of easier access to high resolution SAR data.

PARIS, September 15.  UP42, a leading geospatial developer platform and marketplace, and Umbra, a leader in advanced space radar technology, made their partnership public in a joint video released at the World Satellite Business Week conference.

In the video, UP42’s CEO, Sean Wiid, and Umbra’s VP of Commercial Product, Joe Morrison, announced the availability of Umbra’s direct tasking capabilities with the highest resolution SAR data on offer through the UP42 marketplace.

By capturing images at night, through cloud cover, smoke, and rain, synthetic aperture radar (SAR) satellites have the unique ability to monitor change. Access through UP42 will benefit critical applications such as monitoring floating oil lid inventory, deforestation, mines, container ports, and changes in land use, among others.

Sean Wiid considers this a highly strategic partnership, not only because of the complementarity of the data. “Umbra epitomizes the perfect partner from a data operator perspective with great attention to high-quality data, high-quality APIs, scalable business, and licensing models–all things platforms like UP42 need to be successful,” he commented.

UP42’s customers will harness Umbra’s high-resolution SAR data’s superior image quality and advanced data processing techniques, among other fundamental features:

• Resolution of up to 25 cm; a single-looked spotlight mode at 35 cm resolution as well as 50 cm and 1 m resolutions;
• Frequent revisit rates of 6-12 hours, depending on latitude–crucial for disaster monitoring, security, and agriculture;
• Open license under a Creative Commons authorization; and
• Simple FIFO (First-In-First-Out) tasking system based on timeslot instead of priority

The announcement brings focus to UP42 tasking, which is equipped with advanced capabilities such as order tracking, automated delivery, and support for complex and multi-geometry AOIs. In addition, Umbra’s tasked data is managed in UP42’s STAC-compatible storage, simplifying the search and management of data for easier processing and integrations.

“Our goal is to grow the market for SAR data, but we can’t do that alone,” said Joe Morrison. “We need partners who can educate the forefront of those adopting this technology in their daily workflows. UP42 is an incredibly technically focused team (both in remote sensing and software) that can consult on real applications–and that’s where we see the biggest growth in the future.”