Hydrosat: Commercial Onramp of Next-Generation Satellite Thermal Data for Major Societal Impact

Hydrosat is producing the highest spatiotemporal resolution global satellite thermal infrared data in existence. The applications of such cutting-edge data are far-reaching with particular relevance to NOAA across areas of drought, agriculture, aquaculture, wildfire, and urban heat. Our Phase I project enabled us to scope the potential technical impacts of our data across these areas (e.g., uncertainty reductions, ability to detect extremes) in addition to charting the relevant commercial opportunities. In so doing, we generated high interest across these sectors culminating in letters of support, interest, and commitment for utilizing Hydrosat data and analytics in major institutional and societal applications. Here, we propose to build on the success and results of Phase I towards maturing the commercial onramp of Hydrosat products, specifically focusing on the commercial and governmental institutions that provided letters of commitment. Our Phase II project has three main objectives: 1) apply a design-centered approach to map user/customer data requirements and decision-making; 2) develop the data and product creation and delivery mechanisms to meet those requirements; and, 3) evaluate the utility of our products to our customers through a quantitative impact assessment leading to the establishment of formal commercial relationships for long-term business. Our Phase I results demonstrated that Hydrosat has significant potential to improve uncertainties and hotspot detections—key to management and commercial operations—across all five focus areas: drought, agriculture, aquaculture, wildfire, and urban heat. For example, Hydrosat detects crop stress anomalies > four days before any other existing thermal product, and > ten days earlier than VNIR data for drought detection; this is critical for irrigation management and agricultural production, especially commercial differentiation. Commercially, we identified the greatest market opportunities in the agricultural sector: there is simultaneously massive market value ($5T/y) and large gains to be made through technology (49% yield increases). Consequently, our letters of commitment focus on the agricultural sector across both industry and government. Hydrosat signed a NDA with the US Department of Agriculture, who provided a strong letter of commitment in addition to a budget line for commercial satellite thermal data purchase ($500K/y). Companies such as 4EI and Suzano have started using Hydrosat test products. We expect to work closely with these partners and more in Phase II, delivering data that meet their requirements. We will assess the impact that we have on their own deliverables, and formalize contractual relations for sustainable growth and operations.