A platform to enhance satellite data
The European Union's Copernicus program is the world’s largest Earth Observation project. It draws on data from 7 Sentinel satellites, and different measurement instruments, such as ground sensors or beacons at sea.
In order to promote access to this data and make its massive processing easier, the European Commission turned to the consortium formed by Airbus and Orange Business. This consortium provides the platform which gives access to the images, storage, processing, and network connectivity infrastructure, as well as application layers dedicated to image processing. The Orange Business public cloud allows secure data storage but also simplified access to process them. Thus the sobloo platform was born.
In 2018, the consortium launched sobloo, an access platform that provides users with 6 petabytes of open-source satellite data, which can easily be used for business applications. This unique environment includes data modeling or cross-referencing tools, but also artificial intelligence tools to work on and enrich raw information. The sobloo platform makes it possible to create new services derived from satellite data, helping users to plan, devise, implement and manage innovating applications in numerous business sectors.
The combination of satellite data and additional sources allows the insurer to monitor epidemics and plan actions like vaccination plans more accurately.
Michel BENET, Diginove
An insurance group uses satellite data to improve public health
Insurance companies are particularly interested in the use of Earth Observation data to study changes over time, understand a phenomenon and anticipate to better prevent health crises. A major French insurance group turned to sobloo in order to access the satellite data and use the processing environment provided by the platform. Orange Business and one of its partners, Diginove, an expert in satellite image processing, use the raw data supplied by sobloo to develop the tool TeleCense in order to meet the insurer’s needs. The TeleCense mapping service cross-references spatial images with external data (censuses, mobile data, geographic information systems, etc.) which can be used to improve population monitoring for public or private projects. For example, Diginove can cross-reference demographic data calculated by TeleCense from satellite images, with the WHO’s health data to monitor an epidemic, particularly in global regions where these tasks are complex. For example, the insurer uses data analysis in Sub-Saharan Africa to set up tailored medical initiatives: vaccination campaigns, preventive screening, but also preventive and curative actions against measles or infectious diseases like malaria. This transition from a curative model to a preventive model helps improve health outcomes in countries where the insurer operates.
There are many areas where satellite imaging can be used; the faster processing of data offered by sobloo can now benefit other business sectors, from precision farming to energy, and in all regions worldwide.
