ESE Data and Information in the Marketplace
Market Segments, usage barriers, and technology trends
By Bob Morris and Timothy Gubbels, Ph.D.

On the eve of the launch of a number of new ESE and EOS missions, it is timely to consider the top-level economics of the applications and potential new markets for both the new NASA remotely sensed data streams and those of the upcoming commercial missions. Three fundamental aspects of the remote sensing arena, are relevant: 1) horizontal and vertical market segments; 2) barriers to growth of ESE data and information usage; and 3) technology trends.

Where are the users?
Remote sensing has application within a significant number of 'potential' markets. Nevertheless, within the U.S., 'operational' remote sensing data purchase and use has been concentrated in a single traditional market segment: the federal government. Examples of operational, large scale federal data usage include the Department of Agriculture's Foreign Agricultural Service, NASA, NOAA, as well as the Central Intelligence Agency and National Imagery and Mapping Agency (via the National Reconnaissance Office). Within the existing private sector markets, remote sensing applications have historically tended to favor an as-opportunity-permits (project-based) approach, rather than fully integrated operational and routine usage throughout a sector. This previous type of usage is related to both supply characteristics and extant market barriers. With new sensors, data and information streams, and outreach efforts, ESE and the new commercial satellites may bring more balance to this public/private lopsidedness in operational usage by addressing vertical markets such as: agriculture, forestry, energy/mineral extraction, transportation, urban infrastructure development, management and planning, utilities, fishing and fisheries/coastal zone management, the environment, disaster management, and human health and safety.

Remote Sensing Value Chain— This figure illustrates VARs' position in a value chain of horizontal markets that also includes tool makers such as software and hardware manufactures, as well as industry intermediaries consisted of vertical market-specific and vertical market-crossing consulting firms.  

   Whether the new systems will succeed in building repeat business in the long-standing target of remote sensing will depend, at least partly, on horizontal market segments in the industry and how well they reach out to new users. Value Added Resellers (VARs), for example, serve end-users, uninterested in raw remotely-sensed science data, with new application-oriented products tailored to fit their information needs.

What are the barriers to growth in ESE data and information usage?
The cost effectiveness of remote sensing technology is strongly influenced by alternatives for observation. In the case of ESE satellite observations, alternatives include: 1) commercial and/or international remote sensing satellites; 2) aerial observation; 3) in-situ monitors (attached to antennas or wireline); and/or 4) people on the ground. Finding a market niche within this already crowded array of alternatives, that is complementary and provides additional customer value, will be the challenge for ESE satellite observations.
    Remote sensing's greatest contributions generally lie in recording wide or remote areas with multispectral coverage and frequent revisit; there are a number of vertical markets in which ESE instruments can have an economic impact. For example, already, SeaWiFS onboard OrbView-2 is assisting fishing fleets in finding feeding grounds for schools of target species. MODIS will assist, among other things, with classifying crop type, estimating crop yields, and determining crop health. ASTER and Landsat 7 could be used for forestry applications such as measurement of timber acreage, among others. Many more possible industry uses of ESE data and information are described elsewhere in this issue. A key question is: How will broad penetration of this new data and information be fostered?
    This question is best answered by examining growth barriers. There are three general barriers to any remote sensing product's acceptance in the market: appropriateness to customer requirements, accessibility by customers, and affordability.

Appropriateness
The appropriateness barrier involves the match between the characteristics and information content of the data with the problems the customer has at hand. Salient characteristics of remotely sensed imagery include its spatial and spectral resolution, and its acquisition frequency. These, in combination with the value added by image processing, influence the information conveyed. As an example, consider agricultural applications. The frequent revisit and impressive spectral content of MODIS is balanced against the low resolution of the data in the overall applications value. This favors regional analysis of agricultural productivity, drought impact, and crop stress, over more local applications such as precision agriculture, where higher spatial and spectral resolution data are more appropriate. Assessing the appropriateness of ESE data and information to any given potential application, in many cases, will involve exploration and discovery through dialogue between data provider and customer.

Accessibility
The access barrier includes such questions as:
¥ Where is the data located and how can it be ordered? Is it on-line?
¥ What is the means of data delivery? If media, what kind?
¥ What is the expected delivery time?
¥ What on-line services are available? Spatial and temporal search? Search by other attribute? View browse? Place subscription?
¥ Is the data too bulky? Can a subset be obtained? Is it GIS compatible?
¥ Will there be open access, or will special privilege be required?
¥ Will there be long-term continuity to the data stream?
    These kinds of access questions have driven the design of EOSDIS and helped spawn the ESIPs and RESACs-these new access points, projects, and systems will likely breach many of the historic access barriers to the broader usage of remotely sensed data and information. Unlike some of the previous systems dedicated to research, these new access mechanisms will be available to the public in an easy-to-use manner.
The OrbView-2 sample fish finding map imagery was provided by Orbital Imaging Corporation (ORBIMAGE). This example shows the use of the different line styles and annotations that you are likely to see in a typical fish finding map.   

    Independent of NASA's efforts, the development of the World Wide Web has made a massive contribution. The advent of innovative new compression software, such as the wavelet-based product offered by LizardTech, integrated within larger commercial packages eases problems with mass storage and limited bandwidth. Other positive developments include new interoperable data formats such as HDF-EOS, new developments in commercial desktop and enterprise software, and new developments in satellite direct broadcast. It is likely that commercial, satellite-based data-relay services, now on the horizon, may further aid access.

Affordability
Affordability involves the price of the data and information, as well as the marginal and total cost of utilizing it. The widespread use and power of modern desktop computers and GIS/image processing software favors affordability by lowering the marginal cost of using remotely sensed data. Within NASA's ESE, policies that set pricing based on the marginal cost of reproduction are certain to lead low prices (tens to hundreds of dollars). It is encouraging to note that Landsat 7's basic price will be $475 per scene, an order of magnitude reduction per unit area or pixel from Landsat 5's price.
    The basic ESE data and information products, originally developed for the research community, are poised to have commercial and regional applications value by stimulating a variety of low cost applications across the marketplace. In general, the principal difference between ESE data products and those of the planned and existing commercial satellite missions is that ESE instruments gather imagery at a significantly lower spatial resolution than the commercial instruments. Despite the generally lower resolution of the ESE data, the higher spectral resolution, calibration integrity, and higher revisit frequency offer meaningful applications potential. This has significant synergistic possibilities with commercial high-resolution data sources. Realizing these complementary applications will be a key to success for both ESE and commercial endeavors.
    The potential exists that the low costs of ESE data and information will encourage applications experimentation across all sectors, including the development of new products. Some of these new products may complement and even fuse the private goods of the commercial remote sensing data providers with ESE data and information to produce new value-added products at low marginal cost to both the producers and the end user. The numerous partnerships now developing and being encouraged within the ESE community will likely help stimulate these unforeseen synergies.

What technology trends lie ahead?
A number of technology trends will likely influence the growth of commercial and regional applications of ESE data and information, as well as the growth of the remote sensing industry in general, by contributing to the easing of traditional access and appropriateness barriers. By the year 2005, remote sensing information may have a significantly increased customer base, including segments currently considered nontraditional such as real estate, insurance, media, and the mass market. This increased base will likely grow in tandem with falling image prices. Data supply, demand, and new compression technology will permit regular users of raw data to choose from satellite data sources via the Internet for special orders, or eventually through wireless satellite links able to access disparate systems routinely on a subscription basis.
    Specialized and multipurpose satellites will provide near real-time data with shorter revisit intervals and sharper spatial or spectral resolutions. On a subscription basis, satellite data will be transmitted directly to end users, either from space or via data transmission lines from the operator or data archive. The Internet will become a major image delivery method; on-line archives may include parts of the EOSDIS, ESIP, and RESAC archives, TerraServer, ImageNet, and other systems developed by the satellite operators themselves. At the same time, automation of processing may speed delivery of finished images.
    Moreover, control centers and direct broadcast ground stations will become smaller and more mobile thanks to powerful satellites and electronics miniaturization. For years, there have been lightweight antennas for downloading small data files from low-resolution NOAA satellites. As suggested by the rise in the number of dishes with diameters under 1/2m for consumer direct-to-home television, the private sector also eventually could exploit lightweight antennas attached to a laptop to reduce image delivery time, antenna cost, and transport burden. Thus, distributors and end users could task satellites and downlink data with their own stations. Additionally, developments in geospatial software will likely make data easier to discover, search and order, and utilize within private or public sector enterprise information systems.
    In sum, barriers to the broader use of the technology are being progressively lifted in response to a variety of technology trends, and innovative, cooperative programs between industry and government that promote the operational use of remote sensing data and information in the public and private sectors. These changing conditions favor growth across all horizontal and vertical market sectors for the benefit of all potential users, as well as the commercial and regional applications community.

About the Authors:
Bob Morris is a management consultant in KPMG LLP's space practice. His E-mail address is [email protected] Dr. Timothy Gubbels is a scientist with the NASA EOSDIS Core System Project at Raytheon Systems Company in Landover, Maryland. His areas of expertise include Earth system science, remote sensing tech nology and applications, and information systems. He can be reached at [email protected]  

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