California-headquartered EOS Data Analytics is asking commercial satellite operators to share up-to-date optical and synthetic aperture radar (SAR) imagery of Ukraine and neighboring countries to assist Ukrainian military and humanitarian efforts.
“We urge all global entities operating in the remote-sensing field to share recent and real-time high-to-medium resolution optical and radar satellite imagery of Ukraine and Eastern Europe with EOSDA to assist in both military and humanitarian efforts in the region,” EOS DA CEO Max Polyakov said in a statement.
The company has updated its EOS Data Analytics platform to “immediately analyze the military situation in an effort to save lives and help bring about peace”. Data will be processed, analyzed, and shared in real-time with Ukraine’s Armed Forces and humanitarian organizations. It has also set up a webpage here with more information.
Polyakov’s appeal came a day before Mykhailo Fedorov, Ukraine’s Vice Prime Minister and Minister of Digital transformation, posted on posted on Twitter that his country was seeking the cooperation of commercial satellite operators. He repeated that the goal was to obtain data, particularly SAR data, about the movement of Russian vehicles so that Ukrainian forces can respond.
“We badly need the opportunity to watch the movement of Russian troops, especially at night when our technologies are blind in fact! SAR satellite data is important to understanding Russian troop and vehicles movements at night considering that clouds cover about 80 percent of Ukraine during the day,” Fedorov said in the letter he posted on Twitter.
Real-time SAR imagery
Real-time SAR data will provide situational awareness and relevant intelligence regarding enemy troops and equipment activities (especially refueling operations) during the night and irrespective of cloud coverage, which is impossible with optical data.
Optical data provided to Ukraine to date is useless because it is either obstructed by clouds or outdated by more than 72 hours or both. In the best-case scenario, optical data is only useful for 2-3 hours during the day, while most enemy attacks and activities are conducted under the cover of the night, according to the release from EOS DA.
As part of its appeal, EOS DA specifically mentioned operators such as Capella, ICEye, IQPS & Synspective, Spacety, Airbus, COSMO SkyMed, Sar-Lupe, Umbra and Planet, MAXAR, Airbus, SIIS, Space View, BlackSky and others to provide optical data.
“The economic, political, and humanitarian consequences of the war in Ukraine already are too high to stand on the sidelines,” Polyakov said.
“If you can help us, please provide the SAR data that actually makes a difference, not the archived or otherwise outdated optical images that are good for PR purposes and as evidence of war crimes for future international criminal court proceedings. Ukraine needs actionable intelligence to be able to save the millions of innocent people and the sovereignty of the country,” he added.
EOS DA added that it understood that some data providers may face certain restrictions when engaging with a private company in Ukraine. If that is the case, data suppliers will be put in touch with Minister Mykhailo Fedorov as well as other government and security officials for direct data delivery and/or sanctioning of further processing by EOSDA.
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Appeal for respect
After his appeal for data, Polyakov also hit out on LinkedIn at some companies that he said were taking advantage of the Russian invasion to recruit Ukrainian aerospace engineers.
“Dear “smart space companies” in USA, Europe, South Korea, etc. All job offers to aerospace engineers in order to relocate, will be considered as aggressive act against Ukraine to steal our intellectual capital,” he wrote in his LinkedIn post.
He wrote while it was “OK” for companies with research and development centers in Ukraine to offer to relocate workers, businesses that did not have a presence in Ukraine and are using the “situation where my country is suffering in order to improve your companies” are “BAD”.
He said he knew at least two US companies who had committed this “aggressive act”.
“Ukraine going to win and we need our talent, give respect please,” he wrote.
