Level-2 News
Planet Releases New Forest Carbon Diligence Dataset, Archiving 10 Years of Carbon Data [link]
"Planet Labs announced the global availability of its Forest Carbon Diligence product. This global, 30 meter historical time series of forest carbon, as well as tree height and cover, is a data product that aims to provide insights into forest change and carbon stocks - a crucial tool for ensuring accurate carbon accounting."

NASA's SWOT satellite maps nearly of all Earth's water [link]
"NASA shared striking views of nearly all of Earth's water in new maps of the planet's global sea levels.
Data from the Surface Water and Ocean Topography (SWOT) satellite was used to create an animation that shows the varying surface heights of the planet's oceans and freshwater lakes and rivers. The data was collected during SWOT's first full 21-day science orbit, which started on July 26 and ended on Aug. 16, according to a statement from NASA."
Related:
See SWOT Mission’s Unprecedented View of Global Sea Levels [link]
BlackSky Narrowly Posts its First Profit in Q3 Results [link]
"BlackSky posted a net income of $675,000 in the third quarter of 2023, marking the first time the company has posted a positive net income."
Maxar Intelligence Names Dan Smoot as CEO [link]
"Maxar Intelligence has named Dan Smoot as CEO, after Maxar Technologies recently split into two businesses — Maxar Space Infrastructure and Maxar Intelligence. The satellite imagery-focused company announced the move on Monday, along with a slate of new executive hires."
EUSI & Pixxel Partner to Bring the World’s Best Hyperspectral Imagery to European Market [link]
"European Space Imaging (EUSI), a provider of Very High Resolution (VHR) satellite imagery and Pixxel, a provider of hyperspectral imagery have announced a strategic partnership today.
Under this partnership, users will have unparalleled access to the world’s most detailed hyperspectral imagery from Pixxel directly through EUSI."
ESA and EC to Unite on Climate Action From Space [link]
"ESA and the European Commission are joining forces to accelerate the use of Earth-observing satellites and the information they provide to address the pressing challenge of climate change."
Suhora & ICEYE Secure Radar Satellite Imagery Contract [link]
"India’s growing software and geospatial intelligence company Suhora Technologies announces partnership with Finland-based ICEYE, a global leader in synthetic-aperture radar (SAR) technology. This partnership is one of the largest SAR deals in Asia.
The partnership empowers Suhora to access ICEYE’s high-quality satellite imagery of any location on the planet which plays an important role in providing Suhora’s users with advanced monitoring and analytical geospatial solutions."
Developer’s Orbit
airPy - Generating AI-ready datasets in python for air quality studies using Google Earth Engine [link]
"Developed by Kelsey Doerksen and recently open-sourced by NASA, the airPy package was developed to extract high-resolution satellite data from Google Earth Engine and calculate Machine Learning-ready features for air pollution studies."
Geo for Good 2023
Geo for Good 2023 took place in October.
All sessions are available to watch on demand! [link]
Introduction to Google Earth Engine in Python [link]
"This workshop was taught at the 2023 Geo for Good Summit and provides an introduction to cloud-based geospatial analysis using the Earth Engine Python API."
And the top 3 recommendations from the
Geo for Good 2023: Using Earth Engine for very large computations [link]
"Earth Engine has a lot of compute power available to run your computation, but not all scripts are able to take advantage of that power. Understanding how Earth Engine works can enable you to write scripts that make the most of its unconventional architecture.
Speakers: Mike Dixon"
Geo for Good 2023: Earth Engine Scaling and Debugging [link]
"Tips, tricks, and best practices for debugging your EE scripts and getting them to scale.
Speakers: Noel Gorelick"
Geo for Good 2023: Detecting clouds and cloud shadows using weakly supervised video analysis [link]
"If you've worked with optical remote sensing images, you've probably had to deal with clouds, cloud shadows, and other atmospheric artifacts. Flagging and masking these artifacts is a common, yet surprisingly challenging step in most image processing workflows. In this session, we introduce Cloud Score+, a general AI-powered approach for cloud and shadow detection that leverages both spatial and temporal context to produce a flexible, per-pixel usability score. We'll cover the methods, then demonstrate how Cloud Score+ can be used out-of-the-box to generate cloud-free composites, quality mosaics, and cleaner time series. We'll also share access to a preview collection with Cloud Score+ products for the Sentinel-2 archive.
Speakers: Valerie Pasquarella, Google; Andréa Puzzi Nicolau, Spatial Informatics Group"
Data
Global Human Settlement dataset [link]
"The Global Human Settlement Layer (GHSL) project produces global spatial information, evidence-based analytics, and knowledge describing the human presence on the planet."
The Global Human Settlement dataset was added recently on the EO Dashboard!
Snapshots
SpaceX's Starbase in SAR [link]
"This 35cm/pixel image is formed from two separate Umbra captures taken 71 seconds apart by a single satellite.
Harry Stranger has made the full resolution interactive image on Soar.Earth [link]"
Climate Change: the New Landscapes of Greenland [link]
"The entire coast of Greenland is now ice-free, unveiling spectacular, previously unknown landscapes as observed by our SPOT, Pléiades and Pléiades Neo satellites."

Earth from Space: Elephant Island [link]
"Lying in the Southern Ocean about 250 km northeast off the tip of the Antarctic Peninsula, Elephant Island is one of the outermost of the South Shetland Islands. It owes its name to both the sighting of elephant seals along its shores and its elephant-like shape, here the ‘trunk’ is partially covered by clouds."
Interesting reads

NASA Analysis Finds Strong El Niño Could Bring Extra Floods This Winter [link]
"An analysis by NASA’s sea level change science team finds that if a strong El Niño develops this winter, cities along the western coasts of the Americas could see an increase in the frequency of high-tide flooding that can swamp roads and spill into low-lying buildings."
NASA Flights Link Methane Plumes to Tundra Fires in Western Alaska [link]
"In Alaska’s largest river delta, tundra that has been scorched by wildfire is emitting more methane than the rest of the landscape long after the flames died, scientists have found. The potent greenhouse gas can originate from decomposing carbon stored in permafrost for thousands of years. Its release could accelerate climate warming and lead to more frequent wildfires in the tundra, where blazes have been historically rare."
NASA-ISRO Radar Mission to Provide Dynamic View of Forests, Wetlands [link]
"Once it launches in early 2024, the NISAR radar satellite mission will offer detailed insights into two types of ecosystems – forests and wetlands – vital to naturally regulating the greenhouses gases in the atmosphere that are driving global climate change."
AI maps icebergs 10,000 times faster than humans [link]
"In a groundbreaking development, researchers from the University of Leeds have unveiled a neural network that can swiftly and accurately chart the expanse of large Antarctic icebergs in satellite images, accomplishing the task in a mere 0.01 seconds. This novel approach is in stark contrast to the laborious and time-consuming manual efforts needed previously."
The NICFI Satellite Data Program: Celebrating Three Years Of Using Space To Help Reduce & Reverse Tropical Forest Loss [link]
"This October, Planet celebrates three years of the NICFI Satellite Data Program, a unique public-private partnership to leverage commercial Earth observation technologies to advance the public purpose of Norway’s International Climate & Forests Initiative."
Upcoming Events
Webinar: Unlock the Full Potential of Earth Observation through a Hands-on Experience with the NEW Copernicus Data Space Ecosystem [link]
"An informative webinar featuring Dr. Jan Musiał from CloudFerro, who will present an in-depth look at the new Copernicus Data Space Ecosystem. This one-hour session will include a hands-on experience aimed at empowering users to make the most of capacity building in Earth observation.
Date: November 15, 2023
Time: 14:00 UTC
Duration: 1 hour"