Pacome Revillon, CEO, Euroconsult talks about emerging trends in the Earth Observation (EO) space.
Can you tell us about the current transformation in the space sector?
In terms of the major transformations in the sector, the first one is the number of satellites. Just next year, we should have over 400 satellites in orbit delivering an extensive variety of data. This comes together with major agreements, an increasing level of maturity of data platforms in the Cloud, and an increasing number of automated process to add layers and facilitate the development of services for public and private end users.
What kind of innovation is happening in the satellite industry?
Some initiatives are driven towards further data integration, including that of satellite data and non-space data. Also, there are platforms that can aggregate information in the Cloud — that is another innovation and driver. On one side today, you would see a Segment-as-a-Service, where some companies can work with multiple parties to collect data frequently from different points on Earth, which makes the data available in a shorter time, including revisits. That means you can now have some data on a weekly basis, if not daily, which is a major modification for things like change detection for both public and private decision-makers. And, new layers of analytics, dedicated to different vertical segments is a driver.
Earlier, we saw a lot of growth in the small satellite sector, and now we are seeing the same in ground stations. With these developments, how do we see ‘X’ as a Service — Software-as-a-Service, Ground Station-as-a-Service — and how do you see the future of this market?
You are right about small satellite dynamics, and it’s important to understand that a large part of the supply will be from constellations of small satellites, also with some sources collecting highly differentiated data — from optical to gas emissions to others. When it comes to ground segment and Ground Segment-as-a-Service, it’s important to have the right data collection points at the right places to facilitate end users. You could have ground stations located at the same site as data centers to have a direct connection between the antennas and data centers, or you could have them at sites that are strategically located close to the poles where satellites often pass by, or you could even have them in various locations because a country might want to have direct access to data for fast decision-making.
Which are the upcoming sectors that are using EO data, and what is driving or enabling the adoption among them?
There are different verticals, and security and defense is here to stay as a major user of EO data. Then if you think of civil governments, things from land monitoring to climate change are important drivers, and you also have new commercial offers that did not exist: to monitor carbon dioxide, methane, and other emissions; and to support either the design of new policies, or the ability to apply policies and take action.
Agriculture has been an important sector utilizing EO data over the years, either to support policy decisions and monitoring of agricultural activities, or to support precision agriculture. Now, all this calls for having the right products or Application Programming Interface (API), and also for having the ability or the connectivity/broadband access to agriculturists to make decisions.
A lot of companies are also working with energy concerns, or water supply concerns, or other forms of utility assets, and working with them for one — two years to really get into the right product and decision process. Once this is developed — and we are in this trend right now — one has to leverage it by offering services on a wider scale to those industries. So, insurance, finance, energy and other assets, the smart grid, etc. are the sectors that should see increased utilization of EO data in the coming years.
Since the Covid pandemic, there has been a lot of awareness about EO data. What is the major disruption that you have seen?
On the one hand, there’s both an increase in the resolution for optical data, and also a change — in countries such as the U.S. — in the policies that enable the supply of more accurate data with higher resolution. Then, it’s also the availability of more data that has higher revisit — weekly or more — which is now coming for radar data. Higher revisit had started with optical imagery and gas emissions, and now companies are working on infrared or hyperspectral imaging. But the more data you have, the more important it becomes to develop the right analytics and to be able to have automated processes and facilitate their use, so as to integrate them into general data flows.
What new challenges do you foresee for the EO industry?
One challenge that still exists is having a form of proprietary dataset or access — and there can still be limits to that which can make its use more complicated. It’s also important to have the right partnerships, the right applications, and easy access for decision-makers. This is a process, so you could, from a software perspective and if you have enough data, look at Machine Learning and try to identify patterns, but you often need to tailor some of the developments. And if you want to understand how one particular organization is working, the process may take a year or two. Many companies have started this and have made lot of developmental efforts, but it’s still something that cannot happen overnight. You need that ecosystem to work together with data owners, application developers, and even local organizations that can create the link with some local decision makers on not just the public side but also on the private side.
Can you tell us about the latest report by Euroconsult?
We have just updated our global assessment of EO. One of the important findings of our report (Earth Observation Data & Services Market, 14th Edition) is that the industry now represents a total of over $4 billion between data and value added services. And it should increase at a growth of 5-10% per year in the coming time. We believe it is a strong growth. We are also seeing new players, and there has been a lot of fund raising. The industry has recently raised an additional $3.5 billion and the figure will continue to increase in the coming months. That’s making a difference and some of the new companies now have the funding to really deploy constellations. If you think of what’s changing, you will find in the report that in the next two years, some of the constellations that have been under development for a few years will have a critical mass of satellites in orbit and start offering services. So, for the industry, between the promise and the existing demand that we consider is present, there is the potential to monetize services, which is why the public sector continues to invest into public programs. And it’s a test from concepts to reality and how quickly the industry can grow.
