In a world increasingly reliant on Earth observation data, ISRO’s Bhoonidhi Data Hub, which provides open access to Earth observation satellite data, serves as a comprehensive source of satellite images and essential geospatial data.
It even sets itself apart when measured against Earth observation datasets provided by NASA or ESA.
Comparison with NASA and ESA Datasets
Currently, international agencies like ESA provide data with lower resolutions, such as 3.7 meters from PlanetScope, 0.65 meters from SkySat, and 6.5 meters from RapidEye, but these services are not free. NASA, on the other hand, offers astronaut photography with a single-pixel resolution of up to 3 meters, but its clarity may be limited, and it lacks a consistent revisit schedule.
In contrast, ISRO stands out by offering a diverse range of Earth observation satellites. RESOURCESAT-2 and RISAT-1 cater to land and water resource monitoring, while Cartosat-3 showcases India’s high-resolution imaging capabilities with a remarkable 0.3-meter spatial resolution.
ISRO’s satellites cover various applications, including environmental monitoring and disaster management, with imaging capabilities ranging from 1 km to 0.3 meters. This comprehensive approach positions ISRO as a significant player in the global Earth observation landscape.
Changes in the space policy indicate that the Bhoonidhi portal is moving towards providing free access to 5-meter data in the future, which is currently not available. However, some datasets like EOS-06, Landsat-8/9, and Sentinel -1/2 amongst others are available for free use.
Moreover, ISRO also offers 17KM X 17KM scene from Cartosat-3, with a resolution of 0.3 meters, which is priced at Rs 3,860. This pricing is significantly lower than commercial pricing for similar private satellites, as indicated by comparison to Geo-eye, which offers imagery at approximately the same resolution for $25 per square kilometre.
For the entire area covered by Geo-eye (289 sq km), the cost is approximately Rs 5.78 lakh, whereas Cartosat-3 offers the same coverage for just Rs 3,800, making it a more cost-effective option.
A True Gamechanger
Bhoonidhi promises to revolutionise the accessibility of this invaluable resource by integrating the data hub with computational resources, allowing users to access data in real time without the need for extensive downloads.
“What happens is the data that is collected by ISRO’s ground stations comes into this portal in near real-time. There is some analytics built into it,” explained Radha Krishna Kavuluru, project manager at ISRO’s NISAR.
Initially designed for disseminating free data, it received a significant upgrade in March 2021, allowing the distribution of commercial data as well. By unofficial estimates, about 2,000 public and private entities in India in the realm of geospatial data use this data.
Applications
Earth observation data have various applications, be it administrative or commercial.
It empowers critical sectors with tools to combat climate change, manage disasters, monitor agriculture, and strengthen defence. Additionally, it plays a pivotal role in tracking climate change, aiding carbon credit initiatives, and bolstering disaster management.
The commercial sphere is equally impacted, with applications spanning commodity dynamics, asset monitoring, insurance pricing, and consumer insights. Businesses leverage this data to estimate supply chain risks, predict retail customer footfall using car counts, oversee dispersed assets, calculate insurance premiums accurately, and profile consumers effectively.
For instance, the insurance industry amongst many has found immense value in Earth observation data for accurately calculating premiums. Indian companies like SatSure, which deal with geospatial data and have yet to launch their satellites, employ ISRO’s dataset. The company offers its services to banks to asses loans for agriculture, which helps them with risk and demography analysis.
In the context of Walmart and other such enterprises, Earth observation datasets have proven valuable for consumer insights. The ability to analyse satellite images for consumer behaviour aids in making data-driven decisions.
Asset monitoring, another standout application, offers an efficient means of overseeing geographically dispersed assets. This is particularly crucial in industries where infrastructure maintenance and reliability are paramount.
Impact
Not just that, interactions with major US banks about EO data and Bhoonidhi have resulted in innovative ideas enriching different areas of their business using data from ISRO, sources indicate.
This portal offers several features to users, including simplified target area identification, event-driven input specifications, natural language text-based search options, and a Vista comparison slider for comparing different satellite imagery, which aids in change detection. It also provides a real-time satellite tracker for Earth observation missions.
To meet the growing demands of the geospatial industry and startups, Bhoonidhi is planning to offer a cloud computing environment and API-based data access for machine-to-machine data retrieval. If you’re in need of Earth observation data, Bhoonidhi is the place to explore, offering a unique perspective on observing the Earth.
To address the challenges posed by the vast volume of data, ISRO is launching ‘Codelab’ early next year. “This is almost synonymous with Google Colab, but the additional benefit is the Bhoonidhi portal will be integrated into this, and you can leverage the infrastructure of ISRO directly on your browser,” he said, outlining the advantage of being able to scale computing and storage horizontally, eliminating the need to download extensive data.
