Calculating Oil Storage Tank Occupancy with Help of Satellite Imagery | Hacker News Reader

Calculating Oil Storage Tank Occupancy with Help of Satellite Imagery

medium.com

36 pointsmarklit13 comments

Seeing people use a spreadsheet as an image measuring tool does sort of explain why there’s a group of people who seem to find so much more value in current AI than I do… if you’re using the wrong tool for the job already, a bad replacement for doing it right might still be an improvement from where you are, I suppose.

It’s very true on a deep level, too. LLMs etc will smear out technology into places it never occupied before

Definitely did a double take on first read

I've heard this story so many times, and I really want to know if anyone is actually using this technique to actually make decisions, or is it just basically the "hello world" of satellite data analysis (along with identifying aeroplanes)?

The company that famously touted they were doing it, Orbital Insights [1], almost went bankrupt, and were sold for cents on the dollar [2]

I'm in the EO industry, and it's a use case you hear a lot, but I am not sure anyone is actually doing this profitably.

[1] https://www.businessinsider.com/gv-backed-orbital-insights-i... [2] https://jackpoulson.substack.com/p/exclusive-google-backed-i...

Ursa Space Systems seems to still be providing this as a service (via API). Wonder how they're doing.

This was their lead product for a while. I think it had one customer.

Not sure how they're doing post-layoffs.

Thanks for the info!

Yeah, it seems a bit niche to me. Could be that there might be one or two large clients.

Did this with grain bins in the 2010s to estimate total on-farm storage capacity available in a few states.

What did you do with that information?

Saw this headline and thought, HA been doing this for YEARS, yea, need to add a (2017) to the headline...

I read that during the Cold War, the CIA employed people they euphemistically referred to as "cratologists", who could look at satellite images of crates and shipping containers, and tell you what's in them.

ok so like the lid moves up and down on those? How does it seal? How does it keep from tipping sideways or jamming on the walls? fascinating

Floating roof tank> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/External_floating_roof_tank

TL:DR yes there is a seal along the roof edge and alignment poles/rods so things stay flat.

I do fire suppression builds for these tanks, so all of my equipment on the tank lid has to move up and down with it as it gets filled/emptied. So we end up with self coiling cables/hoses that have to collect themselves on the lid as it fills up. Linear heat detection wire goes all the way around the rim of the tank and also along the lid, which melts and signals the alarm/suppression system in the event of a fire. Companies with more money also have us install UV/IR based flame detection.

Same with these usually having a ladder that becomes more or less stairs depending on how full the tank is.

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