Radiant Earth Foundation (formerly known as Radiant.Earth) announced the release of its new open Earth imagery platform, fundamentally changing the way humanitarian aid workers, policymakers, researchers, journalists, and others use satellite images to understand and serve their communities. The platform is the first of its kind to offer instant, secure, and free access to Earth observation data on the cloud and help the global development community apply the data to real-world problems.

Today, there are more than 600 Earth observation satellites orbiting the planet, each one generating an estimated 6.4 terabytes of data each day. From seeing the scale of natural disasters to supporting Ebola outbreak responses, this data can measure global changes in near real time, leading to better-informed interventions and investments from the public and private sectors.

However, the current growing market for Earth observation data is highly fragmented and often cost-prohibitive for NGOs, multilateral organizations, government agencies, and others focused on social entrepreneurship. Working with organizations such as NASA, the European Space Agency, the Group on Earth Observations, the Global Partnership for Sustainable Development Data, and private companies around the world, Radiant Earth Foundation’s platform brings together billions of dollars’ worth of satellite imagery and makes it available to the global development community. Additionally, the platform provides user-friendly analytical tools and support, empowering a range of users to consume and analyze the data in their everyday work.

Read the news release