Comment by csteubs | Hacker News Reader

Comment by csteubs | Hacker News Reader

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Some of my favorites from testing so far are:

- container volume in and out of ports (which are usually in industrial zones right next to airports)

- daily crop harvest rates from the midwest states

- a small undergrad research team in Oregon is analyzing the mist and water turbidity of Willamette Falls to determine flow rate and the impact to salmon runs

- estimating the amount of oil moving in and out of Cushing, Oklahoma by measuring the shadow cast on tanks over 3,500 times per day

- wildfire detection and monitoring on non-daylight flights

There are a bunch of other demos and use cases on our social accounts as well--we're @notasatellite on all the platforms.

Have you considered archaeology? There are many areas of interest along flight corridors where it can be difficult to get imagery at any recent resolution.

Interesting! Would your primary goal be detecting new or possible archaeological sites, change detection of known sites, or something else? Any particular areas in mind?

Bit of everything, depending on the resolution, frequency, and region. If there's a decent frequency (~once per week) and perhaps meter resolution, you can do new site detection. The specifics you look for vary, but I can go into more detail if you'd like. If there's an oblique view rather than top down (preserving height information) and color accuracy, it could pretty directly compete with satellite in some of those use cases. There are also a lot of people at heritage agencies that have to monitor rather large areas for looters and other damage over time.

On the anthropology side, it might also be useful for looking at statistical information about populations/settlements that's difficult to collect other ways due to either the remoteness of the area and the frequency of other data sources. Things like nomadic migration patterns or land use in areas like Siberia / Mongolia, Myanmar, or northern Canada.

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