Asian Surveying & Mapping
Breaking News
bitsensing Signs MOU with IKIO Technologies to Advance AI-Based Traffic Monitoring on India’s Expressways, Highways and Municipal Areas
Backed by proven success in South Korea and Europe,...
Nuri rocket successfully completes KAIST’s next-gen satellite mission
The Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST)...
President Lai reviews progress on first indigenous satellite constellation
President Lai Ching-te said developing space technology is a...
Japan’s iQPS lines up eight SAR launches
ST. LOUIS — Japan’s Institute for Q-shu Pioneers of...
UAE Astronauts Promote AI and Collaboration in Space at GITEX Europe
The Arab world’s first astronaut, Hazzaa Al Mansouri, and...
New species of space-adapted bacteria discovered on China’s Tiangong space station
Scientists have discovered a previously unknown strain of microbe...
Isro’s 101st mission fails as PSLV-C61 suffers third-stage anomaly
India’s latest Earth observation satellite mission faced a setback...
Iraq’s First Fully Solar-Powered Village in Kulak Is Now Operational
ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – May 20, 2025 — The...
Australia’s Gilmour Space Technologies ready to launch maiden Eris Test flight the nation’s first orbital launch in over 50 years
Gilmour Space Technologies is the leading launch services company...
Korea’s space agency seeks revision of plan to modify next-gen rockets into reusable system
South Korea's aerospace agency said on Thursday that it...
  • Mar 5, 2019
  • Comments Off on Satellites Used to Map Seafloor around Remote Pacific Island Nation
  • Feature
  • 1141 Views

TCarta Marine was contracted by the United Kingdom Hydrographic Office (UKHO) to provide a baseline dataset of water depths and seafloor classification around the Republic of Kiribati. Located in the Pacific Ocean, the island nation is threatened by rising sea levels.

“Most of Kiribati’s islands average less than two meters above sea level at present, and the country’s 110,000 inhabitants are among the most vulnerable to the effects of sea-level rise and the world’s first potential climate-change refugees,” said Kyle Goodrich, TCarta President. “We expect to map 5,000 square kilometers in total. Our seafloor maps will be used with other geospatial information by the UKHO to recommend policies that will assist the Kiribati in planning for and responding to this situation.”

TCarta won the open bid for supply of Satellite Derived Bathymetry (SDB) to the UKHO to extract water-depth measurements and seafloor classifications, including habitat types, from multispectral satellite imagery. In this project, TCarta is processing eight-band DigitalGlobe WorldView-2 and -3 data predominantly, as well as four-band WorldView-4 and GeoEye-1 data to measure depths down to 30 meters at a resolution of two meters.

The Kiribati project highlights the efficiency and cost effectiveness of SDB technology in a geographic area too remote and enormous for traditional marine or airborne survey methods. (Credit: DigitalGlobe)

The Kiribati nation is comprised of 33 atoll islands and multiple reefs spread over an area of the Pacific Ocean nearly the size of the continental United States. Multiple new reefs have been discovered by TCarta using this satellite-derived approach at the start of this project. The islands and surrounding environs have not been mapped in their entirety since the late 1800s. Acquiring bathymetric data and habitat classifications using traditional ship-borne SONAR or airborne LiDAR are prohibitively expensive, logistically challenging, and come at far higher cost and timeframe than a satellite-based solution.