Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

Technology and satellite companies open up a world of data

It is now easier than ever to interrogate vast realms of mapping information for your research.
  1. Gabriel Popkin

    1. Gabriel Popkin is a freelance writer in Mount Rainier, Maryland.

    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed  Google Scholar

Find a new job

Samapriya Roy remembers when it would take him up to an hour to download a single 1-gigabyte image taken by the Landsat Earth-imaging satellites. That was in the late 2000s, when he was analysing satellite imagery as part of his undergraduate studies at Visvesvaraya National Institute of Technology in Maharashtra state, India. And the computer analysis of a picture could take even longer. Sometimes Roy would start the analysis at night and it would still be running the next morning.

Access options

Rent or buy this article

Prices vary by article type

from$1.95

to$39.95

Learn more

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Nature 557, 745-747 (2018)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-018-05268-w

Updates & Corrections

  • Correction 07 June 2018: The Careers Feature ‘Crunch time for data’ (Nature 557, 745–747; 2018) erroneously stated that an image from Planet was unavailable owing to a security concern. In fact, the reason for its unavailability was not specified. Also, DigitalGlobe is headquartered in Westminster, Colorado, not in Boulder.

Subjects

Latest on:

Nature Careers

Jobs

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing

Search

Advanced search

Quick links