Photo: NASA

NEC is teaming up with Ursa Space Systems on satellite image data analysis services. The Japanese tech giant has made an interesting new foray into satellite with this collaboration. The two companies aim to provide a strong set of solutions for various applications and enterprises. The two companies announced the deal, June 20.

In recent years, the use of satellite image data has been rapidly expanding for various applications, including disaster prevention, infrastructure management, resource exploration, agriculture, and environmental monitoring. Against this backdrop, NEC provides a monitoring service that analyzes image data from Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) satellites to support infrastructure maintenance management and disaster countermeasures. Ursa Space has also established a ‘virtual constellation’ consisting of several hundred SAR and optical satellites in collaboration with satellite operating companies, and provides a global one-stop analysis service for image data acquired by multiple satellites.

The two companies make for an interesting combination. As a result of this collaboration, the two companies will offer a newly developed solution that combines NEC’s monitoring service using SAR images and Ursa Space’s image analysis service. The solution is initially being offered to companies in Japan. Secondly, NEC’s SAR image-based monitoring service has been added as a platform function for the image analysis service provided by Ursa Space. The service will be provided to companies globally. Going forward, the two companies will promote initiatives through this collaboration to contribute to the resolution of challenging social issues.