NASA collects petabytes of data each year, including this image of the Chukchi Sea acquired on June 18, 2018, by the Operational Land Imager (OLI) on the Landsat 8 satellite. Image: NASA/U. S. Geological Survey/Norman Kuring/Kathryn Hansen.

NASA has launched a drive for commercial applications of its data and analysis tools with the launch of its remote sensing toolkit.

Since 2013, NASA has developed and maintained an agency-wide plan, policy and framework of activities aimed at increasing public access to scientific data and publications, especially those that are outputs of NASA-funded research.

These resources — the vast trove of remote-sensing data, and the tools, portals and repositories needed to access and utilise it — have been well understood and leveraged by other agencies, as well the scientific, not-for-profit and open source communities.

NASA is now seeking to drive commercial use of its tools and data — petabytes per annum — with the launch of a new portal it calls a remote sensing toolkit, aimed at streamlining and simplifying access.

The remote sensing toolkit features a simplified web interface, designed to facilitate swift access to the most relevant resources based on user input.

“This new tool makes finding and using NASA satellite data easier than ever before, and we hope it sparks innovation among the entrepreneurial community and leads to further commercialization of NASA technology and benefits people across the world,” said Daniel Lockney, NASA’s Technology Transfer program executive.

“Our mission to bring NASA technology down to Earth is expanding with the release of this remote sensing toolkit.”

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