1. New Sensors on the Horizon May 12, 2016
Steve Harford, PhD
Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp.
Chief Technologist
12 May 2016

2. New Sensors seek more balance between types of RESOLUTION
Actionable Information from Spatial Resolution
How many cars are in the parking lot?
Intensity vs. x,y position
In the 1990s and 2000s, new sensors were generally focused on improving spatial resolution
IKONOS  QuickBird  GeoEye  WorldView
Actionable Information from Temporal Resolution
How quickly is the parking lot filling up?
Intensity vs. time
In the present day, new sensors are generally focused on improving temporal resolution
Actionable Information from Spectral Resolution
Is that vegetation dead or alive?
Intensity vs. wavelength
In the 2020s, new sensors are likely to be focused on improving spectral resolution

3. Remote Sensing Data trending toward higher Temporal Resolution
The current trend in remote sensing is to increase temporal resolution (increase revisit frequency) by proliferation and fusion of distributed assets on smallSats, aircraft, & UAVs
Domestic companies: SkyBox Imaging, BlackSky, Planet Labs, OmniEarth
Domestic Government agencies: NASA, NGA
International companies: DMCii, IAI, ImageSat, Thales, Urthecast
International Government agencies: KARI, MDA, ESA, JAXA, ISRO
Enabler #1: Exponential increases in storage, processing, and data movement
Moore's Law
Enabler #2: Autonomy
Collection
Tasking
Deep machine learning to automatically search and exploit
Artificial intelligence

4. The Future of Remote Sensing Data
The future will consist of today’s high spatial resolution with tomorrow’s high temporal resolution
Data Collection Challenges
Lower SWaP sensors
Lower cost
Enable proliferation
Data Processing Challenges
Combination of separate sensors
Synthetic Aperture / Super-resolution
Data overlay
Enable fusion
Future of
Remote Sensing
WorldView 3
Data Processing path to the future
Skybox Imaging
Spatial Resolution
PlanetLabs
Temporal Resolution