Researchers at the Image Processing Laboratory (IPL) of the University of Valencia, in collaboration with the University of Oxford and the Phi-Lab of the European Space Agency (ESA), have developed a system and model for flood detection based on neural networks. The system “WorldFloods” has been launched into space by aerospace company D-Orbit from Cape Canaveral.
Observing the Earth from space provides important information on flooding for decision-making on the ground. Large constellations of small nanosatellites – the CubeSats – are a hopeful solution to reduce revisitation time from days to hours – as long as it takes a sensor to re-cover a location – in disaster areas. But, data transmission to terrestrial receivers is limited by the power and bandwidth restrictions of the cubes.
Advanced AI algorithms
The WorldFloods model, developed at the ESD-funded FDL-Europe research incubator, aims to accelerate the response to such episodes and provids near-real-time terrain maps and reducing, in addition, the cost of technology. Because of that, the system implements advanced Artificial Intelligence algorithms that allow information to be processed on board.
“On-board processing offers a solution to reduce the amount of data to be transmitted by reducing large images from sensors to smaller data products”, says Gonzalo Mateo (IPL), first author of the article recently published in the journal Scientific Reports – Nature’s open access –, detailing the work.
WorldFloods was recently launched from Cape Canaveral into space aboard the Space X rocket Falcon 9 by the company D-Orbit, which has launched 6 microsatellites –CubeSats– of different companies. Among these is Nebula, the 1 kg mass satellite that hosts WorldFloods and is the first iteration of an in-orbit processing service with radiation-tolerant chips, in which Artificial Intelligence advanced algorithms could be implemented.
A CubeSat or U-class spacecraft, is a type of miniaturised satellite for space research that is made up of multiple cubic modules of 10 cm × 10 cm × 10 cm size. Significantly, CubeSats have a mass of no more than 1.33 kilograms (2.9 lb) per unit,and often use commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) components for their electronics and structure.
CubeSats are sent into orbit by deployers on the International Space Station, or launched as secondary payloads on a launch vehicle. As of 1 January 2021, more than 1350 CubeSats have been launched, while more than 1200 have been successfully deployed in orbit.
This AI system could be used detect possible floods in the Commonwealth nations such India , Pakistan, South Africa, Australia, Canada , New Zealand and Sri Lanka, since the frequency of extreme weather events has been on the rise due to global warming.
