Bill Gates starts new project using satellites to help people after natural disasters

Multi-million dollar mission aims to tackle illegal logging and other global problems

Bill Gates is among the philanthropists helping to fund the "Radiant Earth" project (AFP)

Bill and Melinda Gates have teamed up with Pierre Omidyar, the founder of eBay, to set up a new project that seeks to encourage the sharing of satellite data.

The multi-million dollar mission, named “Radiant Earth”, will make reams of satellite images freely available. Satellites have already been used to track global challenges and respond to disasters, but experts say the mass of data they produce is not being adequately shared or utilised.

“Radiant is about using Earth imagery for positive global impact”, said Anne Hale Miglarese, the project’s Chief Executive,

“It will help build the 'who, what, where when or why' for the planning and management of issues such as land tenure, global health, sustainable development, food security and disaster response."

The Gates Foundation invited 150 experts to Seattle last week for a summit on the project. Discussions focused on how humanitarian agencies and environmental groups could benefit from more easily-accessible satellite data.

"Satellite imagery might be one of the most powerful and unbiased tools to tell people what is going on with the planet" Albert Lin, Research Scientist at the University of California, San Diego, told the summit.

"This is a wake-up call that satellite imagery is not just about questions and insights but also about engaging the entire planet in observing the planet, together.”

Experts say the number of satellites orbiting Earth has increased by 40 per cent in the last five years alone and now numbers 1,400.

That number is expected to increase further in the coming years as satellites are used to perform tasks ranging from tracking the health of rainforest trees and other plants to assessing the impact of natural disasters and illegal logging.

Earlier this month 104 new satellites were launched from India, including 88 belonging to Planet, an American company based in San Francisco, which will between them be able to photograph the entire earth every day.