Defense contractor Raytheon has joined forces with satellite imaging startups Array Labs and Umbra Space to create cutting-edge three-dimensional Earth observation technologies. The collaboration, announced January 27th, will deliver a new product called Site3D. This innovative offering combines synthetic aperture radar (SAR) technology with sophisticated mapping algorithms to generate highly detailed 3D models of the Earth's surface.
SAR technology, renowned for its ability to capture images regardless of weather or time of day, is experiencing a surge in commercial adoption. This is driven by the increasing demand for continuous monitoring capabilities. Umbra Space, located in Santa Barbara, currently operates SAR satellites for Earth observation, while Palo Alto's Array Labs is developing clusters of small radar satellites. These satellites are designed to work in formation, capturing multiple perspectives of the same location concurrently to achieve the ambitious goal of creating a high-resolution 3D map of the Earth.
This partnership will greatly benefit Array Labs. "Raytheon and Umbra will help us educate customers, bring 3D data products to market faster, and launch our own satellite imaging clusters,” explained Array Labs CEO Andrew Peterson. The collaboration leverages Raytheon's extensive experience in imagery processing. “We’re bringing precise 3D processing algorithms, developed over two decades of working with electro-optical imagery,” stated Erich Hernandez-Baquero, vice president of space intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance at Raytheon.
Umbra anticipates the collaboration will unlock significant market expansion. Joe Morrison, Umbra’s vice president of remote sensing, commented that Array and Raytheon “have transformed our data into a totally new product applicable to customers we never would have known existed, let alone reached, without them.”