PlanetScope • Tarpon Town, Andros Island, The Bahamas • February 10, 2023

In this week’s issue:

• Coastal carbon-storing ecosystems

• Solar panels float atop reservoirs

• Using AI to search satellite data

Having trouble viewing images? Then read this issue on Medium!

FEATURE STORY

Carbon Part 2: Coastal

If both financiers and environmentalists get excited about something, pay attention. It's rare. Conversations from boardrooms to treefields are turning to the coastal ecosystems that line Earth’s landmasses for one simple reason: carbon. Mangroves, marshes, and seagrasses are carbon-storing champions that radically influence the carbon credit market. But what can be stored can also be released.

This week, we’re closing out our carbon series with a look at how saltwater ecosystems are helping mitigate the impacts of climate change—from sequestering greenhouse gases to fortifying coasts. And in doing so, how they’ve become commodified in economic markets for their carbon-storing potential.

SkySat • Largest seagrass bed in the world, Shark Bay, Australia • April 8, 2023

Blue carbon refers to all the carbon locked in the world’s coastal ecosystems. If you’re surprised that mangroves, tidal and salt marshes, and seagrasses are a major player in the carbon cycle, we hear you. The numbers are certainly striking:

• They cover less than 5% of global land area and 2% of the ocean, but store 50% of carbon buried in ocean sediments.

• Mangroves can store up to 5 times as much carbon as upland forests.
  

• Tidal marshes store carbon 10 times faster than mature tropical rainforests.

SkySat • Ashton Bay, Union Island, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines • January 18, 2023

The problem with this carbon sink, however, is that it can flip into a carbon source with the figurative turn of the tides. Some refer to these areas as a “carbon bomb” to indicate their potential for massive output of greenhouse gases. All that locked carbon is quickly released when the ecosystem is destroyed, and the coasts are disappearing rapidly.

PlanetScope • Altamaha Wildlife Management Area, Georgia, USA • March 30, 2023

Almost 50% of pre-industrial global wetlands have disappeared since the 19th century. That destruction translates into the greenhouse gas emissions equivalent of 97 million cars each year. Which makes the conservation and restoration of blue carbon ecosystems one of the most effective ways to mitigate emissions. The good news is there appears to be agreement that naturally fortifying coasts is a good idea.

SkySat • Grenville Bay, Saint Andrew Parish, Grenada • February 21, 2023

Blue carbon sinks offer a promising solution towards hitting net zero emissions by rewarding countries and corporations credits for restoring coastal ecosystems and the carbon stored within them. Tying coastal restoration to global economic markets is gaining traction in international circles as it rewards companies for offsetting emissions while protecting endangered ecosystems. And it’s estimated to return $11.8 billion in carbon finance by 2040.

NIR false-color PlanetScope • Tarpon Town, Andros Island, The Bahamas • February 10, 2023

The credit market for blue carbon stocks is undeveloped even as corporate demand grows. Part of the problem is that the markets are working on sparse data. But satellites are filling in the gap by allowing researchers to map coastal ecosystems and evaluate their health. Built on satellite data and rounded out with on-the-ground measurements, new mapping tools like Blue Carbon Explorer equip the markets with the data needed to make sound decisions.

SkySat • Sanders Island, Manus Province, Papua New Guinea • March 12, 2022

Putting a price tag on nature isn’t easy, but it’s necessary as global initiatives aim to protect these resources. Mapping their extent is a first step: you need to know how much coastal carbon there is and where it is. At a global scale, it’s estimated that coastal ecosystems provide $190 billion in blue carbon wealth. But dividing that sum at the local level is trickier. And, as with every ecosystem, its capacity for carbon storing is just one benefit of many. These areas are also critical habitat for multiple species and provide humans with food security, water filtration, and protection from flooding and storm surges.

PlanetScope • Coringa Wildlife Sanctuary, India • August 25, 2022

That’s a wrap for our carbon series, but not for the growing momentum to restore ecosystems via market solutions. We’ll keep exploring other ways that data pipelines are helping replace oil pipelines and making the world a brighter and bluer place.

In the News

Floatovoltaics

Since 2008, countries around the world have begun filling up their reservoirs with glass and silicon. Well, at least just on the surface. The hot new trend—dubbed floatovoltaics—is actually driven by the cold: reservoir water improves energy efficiency by cooling the solar panels, and the floating panels slow reservoir evaporation by blocking sunlight in return.

PlanetScope • Dingzhuang, Dezhou, China • April 7, 2023

Their other major benefit is that they take up no land. Solar panel farms can take up to 20 times as much land than a fossil fuel plant to generate a gigawatt of energy. And as the demand for solar rises to meet increasing renewable energy demands, floatovoltaics are promising, even if they’re currently more expensive to install.

SkySat • Grafenwörth, Austria • April 6, 2023

PlanetScope • Tengeh Reservoir, Singapore • April 8, 2023

AI

Queryable Earth

What if you could search the surface of the Earth the same way you search the internet? That’s the question our founder, Will Marshall, asked a TED audience back in 2018. And we thought it was a good one. Satellites are indexing the Earth: tallying trees, mapping buildings, and sizing up everything else. And now all that is becoming searchable. 

Starting with a proof of concept collab for what comes next, the future of AI and satellite imagery.

The idea with the affectionately dubbed “Queryable California” is to evaluate how Microsoft’s next-gen AI can make our high-resolution satellite imagery and Planetary Variables data products more accessible by both indexing physical characteristics of life on Earth and making them searchable, in plain and easy-to-understand language, with real-world context about location and time.

Proof of concept video for Queryable Earth

Weekly Revisit

Last week we welcomed spring with some blooms across the world and discussed how climate change is shifting the season’s clock.

If you’re interested in working with Planet data and seeing some blooms for yourself, check out this lab exercise from Planet University. All you need is access to ArcGIS Pro and a good eye for flowering events.

SkySat • Wildflower bloom, Carrizo Plain, California, USA • April 5, 2023