UP42 expands optical and SAR data offering with SI imaging services of Korea

UP42 and SI Imaging Services (SIIS) of Daejeon, South Korea, have signed an agreement to make imagery from the KOMPSAT satellites available on the UP42 marketplace and developer platform. The deal includes high-resolution optical imagery from KOMPSAT-3 and -3A, and Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) data from KOMPSAT-5.

KOMPSAT imagery is a valuable addition to the more than 50 geospatial data sets now available on the UP42 marketplace, including satellite imagery from five international organizations. UP42 users will find imagery from the Korean constellation complements other data products by offering diverse spatial and spectral capabilities, broad dynamic ranges, afternoon acquisition times, extensive archives, and attractive price points.

Wiid predicts one of the most important impacts on new use cases for UP42 users will come in the area of intraday monitoring — with the aid of KOMPSAT’s afternoon collection times. The addition of KOMPSAT data will also provide existing UP42 users with more options to augment infrastructure monitoring and vegetation management use cases.

In its initial offering from KOMPSAT, UP42 will make tasking and archive ordering available from the following satellites:

KOMPSAT-3 – This satellite was launched in 2012 with notable upgrades from earlier South Korean platforms. Product spatial resolution improved to 50-centimeter panchromatic and 2.0-meter multispectral (RGB, NIR). The 14-bit radiometric resolution produces a broader dynamic range of pixel values, delivering more detailed and reliable feature classifications. In addition, the 13:30 afternoon acquisition time makes intraday monitoring and change detection possible when combined with morning imagery from other satellites.

KOMSAT-3A – A twin to KOMPSAT-3 in most respects, yet launched in 2015, this satellite offers the same 14-bit dynamic range and afternoon acquisition time but with an important enhancement: 40cm spatial resolution.

KOMPSAT-5 – Launched in 2013, this satellite captures X-band SAR data at 85-centimeter resolution. With radar’s ability to image through clouds and darkness, KOMPSAT-5 data is commonly used to map disasters, natural resources, and coastal zones in all weather conditions. The SAR sensor is also capable of monitoring particulates in the atmosphere.

The UP42 platform offers extensive Earth observation data sets and more than 70 analytics tools – along with cloud computing power – to create custom geospatial solutions easily and inexpensively. Users purchase just the data needed to cover their area of interest and then leverage off-the-shelf processing capabilities to analyze the data sets without investment in their own computing infrastructure. And for users who only want to purchase imagery, one simple API on the UP42 marketplace enables them to search multiple data providers and integrate selected imagery directly into their geospatial workflows.

The SIIS agreement broadens the UP42 data ecosystem, comprising of both satellite and non-satellite data sources:

• High-resolution satellite data from Airbus and SIIS,
• Very high-resolution aerial image from Hexagon and Getmapping,
• Digital Elevation Models (DEMs) from Intermap, Airbus, and Hexagon,
• SAR satellite imagery from Airbus and SIIS,
• Medium- to low-resolution satellite imagery from the ESA’s Sentinel-2, 3, and 5,
• Weather and ocean data from Meteomatics, and AIS ship tracking from exactEarth.

www.up42.com.