Sydney captured by the WorldView-4 satellite on Jan. 8, 2017. Photo: DigitalGlobe

DigitalGlobe announced growth in its ecosystem of partners that leverage the company’s Geospatial Big Data Analytics (GBDX) platform. At the heart of GBDX is DigitalGlobe’s 17-year, time-lapse image library, hosted in the Amazon Web Services cloud.

In addition to SpaceKnow, CrowdAI, Facebook, and PSMA, several other notable organizations joined the GBDX ecosystem or expanded their commitments in the fourth quarter of 2016, including Lockheed Martin, Video Inform and PrecisionHawk. Lockheed Martin is using GBDX to build new commercial offerings with a focus on extracting precision coordinates and creating 3D maps on country and continent scales. Video Inform is integrating deep learning algorithms with other machine learning approaches to create its Visual Profiler solution, which detects, interprets and classifies objects of interest in satellite imagery in a short period of time, delivering actionable information for market and business intelligence products. Finally, PrecisionHawk is developing a 3D ground-obstacle database using satellite imagery on GBDX to create a drone air traffic control system with the hopes of safely integrating commercial and consumer drones in the crowded U.S. airspace.

“We are committed … to improving the user experience through intuitive [Application Programming Interfaces] APIs and additional integrated, off-the-shelf tools that will continue to expand the platform’s appeal to an even broader set of users,” said Shay Har-Noy, DigitalGlobe’s vice president and general manager of platform.

DigitalGlobe also announced that its WorldView-4 satellite successfully completed in-orbit testing and calibration and began serving its first direct access customer on Feb. 1. WorldView-4 is now the fifth active satellite in Digital Globe’s constellation and joins WorldView-3 as the company’s satellites capable of achieving 30 cm native resolution.