In the face of an escalating climate crisis, we find ourselves at a defining moment in history. Our planet is undergoing rapid and profound changes, from rising temperatures to more frequent and severe environmental catastrophes. The need for timely and accurate climate data has never been more critical. However, a glaring problem exacerbates this crisis - the climate data gap. This gap represents a fundamental hurdle in our battle against climate change as accessible, comprehensive, and real-time information is essential to develop effective policies, hold polluters accountable, and take proactive steps to mitigate the impending catastrophe.

At Blue Sky Analytics, we recognised the urgency of bridging this gap and embarked on a mission to create a platform that could provide us with a comprehensive, real-time view of various environmental and climate parameters across all locations on Earth. The key to this ambitious endeavour was to "know" about various "Spaces" across "Time" - in other words, to have robust spatio-temporal data for every natural asset on Earth, enabling us to care for our planet more effectively than ever before.

And thus, SpaceTime™- a digital twin of our planet was born. With SpaceTime™, we aim to revolutionise how we perceive and interact with the environment, armed with the knowledge and insights necessary to tackle the climate crisis head-on.

What is SpaceTime™?

SpaceTime™ is our visualisation platform which provides a diverse catalogue of reliable and up-to-date geospatial climate-related data for researchers, policymakers, journalists, businesses and others for a variety of critical infrastructure, natural assets, and more. It offers different levels and types of datasets, including historical, real-time, and predictive data, with various analysis options. Users can download the results in different formats, including graphs, images, and gifs, for visual presentation and reporting. With SpaceTime™, our goal is to enable global climate action by providing accessible climate data to a wide range of stakeholders.

Related: Learn more about our journey and inspiration here.

Democratising Climate Data One Dataset at a Time

Our journey began in 2018, when our founders, living in New Delhi at the time - breathing toxic air- decided to simply know the air quality across different locations of the country. They aggregated various air quality monitors from which they could access data and built SpaceTime™ v1. This platform became the canvas to paint a brighter, more informed future. We developed the platform that allowed us to pour all our refined environmental and climate data that we crunched from satellites, ground sensors, and countless ancillary datasets on the internet into a clean Spatio-temporal format.

Leveraging open-source tools we started with air quality monitoring (in 2019) and have expanded to monitor a wide range of parameters, including carbon emissions, wildfires, water quality, flood, and drought risk. Our comprehensive approach covers a spectrum of temporal aspects, from long-time series historical data to real-time insights, 7-10 day predictions, recurring annual forecasts, and even 5-10 year scenario analyses under various pathways.

🌍 The result? We've created a digital twin of our planet's natural resources, a valuable asset that, until now, remained tantalisingly out of reach. This is a building block in our vision to become the "Bloomberg for Climate and Environmental Data.”

We have built and are building a wide range of datasets that include spatial air quality, power plant emissions, surface water quantification, water quality monitoring, wildfire prediction, GHG emissions from fires, carbon sequestration, land surface temperature, asset-level carbon emissions and much more!

Distinctive Offerings from SpaceTime™

SpaceTime™ offers a comprehensive suite of features that empower users to harness climate data effectively:

  • Downloadable Results in Multiple Formats: Users can download the results in different formats, including graphs, images, and gifs, for visual presentation and reporting**.**

  • Near real-time data: It allows continuous monitoring, which is helpful in identifying trends, establishing parameters, trigger levels, and real quantification of risks and probabilities.

  • Embeds: SpaceTime™ is designed to be easily embedded on external websites. This means that organisations can seamlessly integrate their data and visualisations into their own online platforms.

  • Interactive dashboards: The platform features interactive dashboards that provide a dynamic and user-friendly way to explore the data. Users can interact with the information, choose time periods and regions, customise colours, and gain deeper insights into the environmental metrics they are monitoring.

  • Multiscale Tailored Insights: SpaceTime™ datasets are highly customisable, allowing users to focus on specific areas of interest, from as small as one acre to expansive landscapes covering thousands of acres.

  • Seamless API Integration/ straightforward data delivery: SpaceTime™ data can be delivered through APIs, making it easy to integrate into any database or modeling engine. APIs make data delivery to end users straightforward. For example, one can simply sign up on Betaal, our Dev Portal, choose from the list of APIs available, and start accessing data!

How do we do it?

We built SpaceTime™ by leveraging innovations in artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning (ML), and satellite-powered intelligence.

The popular diktat "you can't manage what you can't measure" encapsulates satellite data's role in continuously monitoring and measuring climate change. In fact, more than 50% of Essential Climate Variables, which are vital indicators of the earth's changing climate, can only be tracked via satellites. In addition, satellite data can make up for the shortcomings of traditional monitoring tools such as IoT monitors, forest guards, etc., which are expensive and time-consuming.

Related: Learn more about the role of satellite data in our blog here.

However, while geospatial data has emerged as a near-perfect solution to monitoring indicators of climate change, acquiring insights from its raw form is impossible. To leverage these vast data sets, running them through sophisticated models is important. Our proprietary AI models are trained on ground truth to back-fill the data gaps and generate streamlined, actionable climate data. In this regard, the Geospatial Refinery serves as the backbone of SpaceTime™. Leveraging AI/ML & cloud computing, it ingests, processes, analyses terabytes of crude data and delivers an easily accessible, continuously updated stream of environmental insights.

The final data is visualised on SpaceTime™. The entire dataset is then accessible to clients as per their requirements through APIs.

Related: Read about the role of AI in combatting climate change in our blog.

From Finance to Policy: The Expansive Utility of SpaceTime™

Our services are meticulously tailored to cater to the distinct requirements of a broad spectrum of stakeholders. Researchers, banks, mutual funds, corporations, carbon markets, and non-profit organisations can all benefit from our platform's capability to measure and monitor climate risks.

Our fundamental thesis is that Blue Sky's datasets are set to become ubiquitous and integrated into every facet of our lives. From influencing retail product pricing to guiding investment decisions, from shaping public policy to informing news reporting, climate-tech is taking center stage, and environmental data is driving innovation worldwide. SpaceTime™ stands at the forefront of this transformation, offering the insights and tools needed to navigate the climate challenges.

All we need are the asset locations you provide, and from there, we embark on a journey of constant monitoring. We supply you with near real-time data and predictive intelligence, empowering you to craft effective strategies, mitigate risks, and adeptly manage climate-related challenges.

🌍 We believe in democratising access to environmental insights, which is why SpaceTime™ operates on a freemium model. The majority of our data is available on the open platform for everyone, while high-resolution and granular data are behind a paywall.

You can check out and explore SpaceTime™ here. You can log in with your regular Google email ID, explore the platform, and let us know of any feedback.

Charting a Sustainable Path Forward

"With SpaceTime™, our vision for it is to evolve into a dynamic platform that doesn't just help in understanding the changes affecting our planet but is also a toolkit for proactive action. We aim to empower you and the global community to actively monitor critical climate metrics, to hold all stakeholders accountable for their impact on the environment, and to design effective plans, strategies, and projects that ensure the conservation and improvement of our planet's health.