NASA launches toolkit to promote commercial use of satellite data

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) on July 19, 2018 launched the ‘Remote Sensing Toolkit’ to promote commercial use of satellite data.

This online toolkit was launched with an aim to make it easier for users to find, analyse and utilise the relevant satellite data for their research, business projects or conservation efforts.

Remote Sensing Toolkit

• The "Remote Sensing Toolkit" provides a simple system that quickly identifies relevant sources based on user input.

• The toolkit is designed to help users search for data, as well as ready-to-use tools and code to build new tools.

• This new tool makes finding and using NASA satellite data easier than ever before, and aims to spark innovation among the entrepreneurial community and lead to further commercialisation of NASA technology.

• It will help grow the number of users who put NASA’s free and open data archive to work for people.

What led to the launch of this online toolkit?

• The NASA collects petabytes of data every year through its constellation of Earth observation satellites.  

• The agency offers a variety of open source tools to access, analyse and utilise the data from these satellites to millions of science users, however, the access to such data remains daunting for many potential commercial users.

• Over the years, many organisations around the world have found innovative ways to turn NASA satellite data into beneficial information products here on Earth.

• The NASA Technology Transfer program reviewed more than 50 websites and found that no source provided a comprehensive collection of information or a single access point to begin a search and thereby, launched this toolkit.