A digital platform claiming to be the “first digital twin of earth in 3D, time dynamic and cloud-free” is now available and is free of charge for users.
Nimbo Earth Online delivers new satellite views of the world for free, and is pitched as a research and development tool for students and land management professionals.
Users can register at maps.nimbo.earth and begin using the platform.
Nimbo uses technology developed by French AI and geospatial analysis specialist Kermap and is hosted in Europe.
It relies on Sentinel 1 and 2 images supplied by the European Union’s Copernicus programme, which are cloud-cleared and colour harmonised using deep learning techniques developed for image processing.
Nimbo claims that its high quality world basemaps are ideal for GIS professionals interested in time series analysis, object extraction and change detection.
Any layer from any month among the nearly 200 basemaps already produced since October 2019 can then be easily retrieved and worked upon.
“Satellite images are fragmented and frequently blocked by clouds,” Nimbo says.
“We have developed innovative AI processes to reconstruct seamless, cloud free maps from Sentinel imagery, one for every month since 2019, in five different colour layers.”
Beyond Nimbo, artificial intelligence is key to achieving automated land recognition, and Kermap produces exclusive information on land-use and crop cover in natural or urban spaces.
These products are distributed in standard OGC formats (TMS, WMS), making them compatible with any GIS software.
Using the API token available from their Nimbo account, GIS specialists can import these basemaps into QGIS or ArcGIS or feed them into their proprietary geospatial apps.
“Kermap provides the first solution granting universal access to these crucial information, through visualization and analytics extraction,” Nimbo says.
“With Nimbo, the invaluable wealth of information contained in space imagery is truly unlocked at last to support today’s and tomorrow’s climate and environmental actions.”
