Satellites capture vast amounts of images and data every day, offering a near real-time view of our planet. However, making sense of this deluge of information—especially as conditions change rapidly—has been a significant challenge for scientists and policymakers alike.
To tackle this, researchers at DeepMind, Google’s AI research and development lab, have developed AlphaEarth Foundations, an innovative AI system designed to function as a virtual satellite, enabling real-time, detailed monitoring of landscapes and coastlines. It provides a clearer understanding of how regions are changing, whether it’s tracking deforestation, urban expansion, or shifts in agricultural land, and help decision-makers respond more effectively to global challenges.
Unlike traditional satellites that pass over specific areas at intervals, AlphaEarth Foundations continuously integrates data from various sources (optical imagery, radar, LiDAR scans, and climate models) and combines them into a single, detailed map of the entire planet at a resolution of just 10 meters.
It can synthesize huge volumes of data from dozens of sources, analyzing the world’s land and coastal waters in very precise blocks. This level of detail provides a comprehensive view of our planet’s surface and how it evolves over time. And a key innovation is creating compact summaries for each area, requiring much less storage space—about 16 times less—making large-scale, on-demand mapping feasible and cost-effective. This means scientists can generate detailed maps whenever needed, without relying solely on satellite passes overhead.
Performance and Impact
AlphaEarth Foundations has been rigorously tested and consistently outperforms existing methods. It achieves about 24% lower error rates in surface property estimation and land use identification, even when labeled data is scarce. This makes it a powerful tool for applications such as monitoring crop health, deforestation, or urban development.
To make this technology accessible, the system offers a rich dataset of annual embeddings—over 1.4 trillion data points per year—hosted in Google Earth Engine. Organizations worldwide are already using this data to create customized maps that support vital decisions.
AlphaEarth Foundations is taking a significant step forward in expanding our observing and understanding of the planet’s changing landscape. As the technology evolves, it’s expected to integrate with larger AI systems and other geospatial tools for Google Earth AI to leverage these advancements and better address top global challenges. Discover more about the new model by visiting the official post here.
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