Earth Copilot, an AI developed by NASA to study the Earth

Geospatial data is complex and often requires a certain level of technical knowledge to navigate. As a result, these data are typically only available to a limited number of researchers and scientists. Made to order that NASA As more data is collected from new satellites, these challenges only grow and could further limit the potential pool of people able to extract information and develop applications that can benefit society. If we add to this that In total, we are talking about 100 petabytes of information. (equivalent to 50 billion pages of text stacked on top of each other), the task is enormous.

Thus, navigating the more than 100 petabytes of collected data requires strategy. This is what led to NASA and Microsoft are exploring the possibility of using a personalized co-pilot

using Azure OpenAI service to develop Earth Copilot, artificial intelligence it could change the way people interact with data on Earth.

NASA’s Earth Science Data Systems program is responsible for collecting an incredible variety of data from space-based sensors and instruments. This data ranges from atmospheric conditions to changes in land cover, ocean temperatures and more. However, The scale and complexity of this information can be overwhelming.. AI could simplify this process, reducing the time it takes to extract information from Earth data to just a few seconds.

Earth Copilot will be able to answer questions about our planet by condensing a wide range of NASA geospatial information into easy-to-understand answers. For example, “What was the impact of DANA on Valencia?” or “How has the COVID-19 pandemic affected air quality in Spain?” In this way, NASA seeks to “democratize” access to scientific data.

“For many, finding and retrieving information requires navigating technical interfaces, understanding data formats, and mastering the complexities of geospatial analysis: specialized skills that very few users possess,” explains Tyler Bryson, one of the people responsible for developing Earth Copilot. AI can speed up this process. reducing the time to obtain information from Earth data to several seconds“

But this AI will also have a huge impact on science. For example, scientists who need to analyze historical hurricane data to improve forecasting models, or policymakers who want study patterns of deforestation to implement environmental standardsthey may not be able to easily access the data they need.

Also, as they continue to be released new satellites with new instruments and collecting more dataNASA continually faces the challenge of creating new tools to manage and understand this growing “library.”

Key to NASA’s Earth Copilot is the integration of cloud technologies such as the Azure OpenAI service, which provides access to powerful artificial intelligence models and natural language processing capabilities. enable developers to integrate intelligent and conversational AI into their applications

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By combining these technologies, Earth Copilot allows users to interact with NASA archives through queries using simple language. Currently Earth’s second pilot It is available only to NASA scientists and researchers.who will evaluate the capabilities of the tool. They will then explore the possibility of integrating them into platform for visualization, research and data analysis (VEDA) from NASA, which already offers access to some of the agency’s data.