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Montreal-based NorthStar Earth & Space Inc. has announced a strategic partnership with SpecTIR Hyperspectral & Remote Sensing Solutions of Reno, Nev., to deliver complete hyperspectral imaging services. SpecTIR’s airborne hyperspectral image services will complement space-based hyperspectral image services delivered by NorthStar, the world’s first global information platform to monitor Earth, its environment and near-space.
The NorthStar platform is based on a constellation of 40 satellites with a suite of sophisticated sensors that will support a complete and precise information service for Space Situational Awareness (SSA) and Earth Information and Intelligence (EI2). NorthStar will fuse data from multiple sources and be the first space-based commercial system to offer hyperspectral imaging, which deduces the chemical and mineral composition of matter on Earth at an unprecedented level of richness and detail.
Under the partnership, SpecTIR will provide state-of-the-art, Earth-based airborne hyperspectral imagery to complement NorthStar’s own hyperspectral capabilities. The NorthStar platform will enable new advancements in environmental management, including pollution detection, charting the health of the world’s oceans, rivers and fresh water sources, enhancing the productivity of agriculture, wildfire alerts, and pipeline oil and gas monitoring to prevent spills and contamination. Since 1993, SpecTIR has been delivering airborne hyperspectral solutions for government and commercial clients across the world, with a focus on geology and minerals, oil and gas, vegetation and environmental, and emergency response.
According to Stewart Bain, CEO of NorthStar Earth & Space, “This partnership cements an essential cornerstone of NorthStar’s services by establishing complete and persistent coverage of the Earth’s surface using a combination of space-based and airborne hyperspectral sensors. We are proud to continue this important work to deliver critical information on the world’s environment with our colleagues at SpecTIR.”
“Taking the commercial hyperspectral high ground in space is what SpecTIR has been working toward for over 25 years,” said Mark Landers, CEO of SpecTIR. “It takes a unity of effort and a focus of effort by smart professionals with pedigrees in the spectral sciences and space technologies. NorthStar has put together such a team, and we are honoured to contribute our corpus of knowledge to this unique constellation with a new and unique dimension in capability. NorthStar’s hyperspectral information and derivative products-‘Imagery with Substance’-will add a significant capability for man to better characterize, monitor, and assess the Earth’s environmental systems and our global patterns of life.”
