A Biologist’s Guide to the Galaxy: Leveraging Artificial Intelligence and Very High-Resolution Satellite Imagery to Monitor Marine Mammals from Space

Christin B. Khan; Kimberly T. Goetz; Hannah C. Cubaynes; Caleb Robinson; Erin Murnane; Tyler Aldrich; Meredith Sackett; Penny J. Clarke; Michelle A. LaRue; Timothy White; Kathleen Leonard; Anthony Ortiz; Juan M. Lavista Ferres

doi:10.3390/jmse11030595

A Biologist’s Guide to the Galaxy: Leveraging Artificial Intelligence and Very High-Resolution Satellite Imagery to Monitor Marine Mammals from Space

Christin B. Khan, Kimberly T. Goetz, Hannah C. Cubaynes, Caleb Robinson, Erin Murnane, Tyler Aldrich, Meredith Sackett, Penny J. Clarke, Michelle A. LaRue, Timothy White, Kathleen Leonard, Anthony Ortiz, Juan M. Lavista Ferres

Earth and Environmental Sciences-Twin Cities

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

2 Scopus citations

Abstract

Monitoring marine mammals is of broad interest to governments and individuals around the globe. Very high-resolution (VHR) satellites hold the promise of reaching remote and challenging locations to fill gaps in our knowledge of marine mammal distribution. The time has come to create an operational platform that leverages the increased resolution of satellite imagery, proof-of-concept research, advances in cloud computing, and machine learning to monitor the world’s oceans. The Geospatial Artificial Intelligence for Animals (GAIA) initiative was formed to address this challenge with collaborative innovation from government agencies, academia, and the private sector. In this paper, we share lessons learned, challenges faced, and our vision for how VHR satellite imagery can enhance our understanding of cetacean distribution in the future.

Original language	English (US)
Article number	595
Journal	Journal of Marine Science and Engineering
Volume	11
Issue number	3
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.3390/jmse11030595
State	Published - Mar 2023

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
Downloading and handling large volumes of satellite imagery is time consuming and requires cloud storage and processing infrastructure. This adds additional complexity and cost to the development of an operational system. GAIA is being supported by a grant from Microsoft AI for Good for cloud compute resources in Azure.

Funding Information:
This research was funded by the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory, Microsoft, the National Oceanographic Partnership Program, the National Protected Species Toolbox initiative, NOAA’s High Performance Computing and Communications IT Incubator, the Marine Mammal Commission (project MMC21-043), and the Ecosystems component of the British Antarctic Survey, funded by the Natural Environment Research council (NERC).

Publisher Copyright:
© 2023 by the authors.

Keywords

Geospatial Artificial Intelligence for Animals
annotation
artificial intelligence
cetacean
collaborative innovation
machine learning
marine mammal
open-source
remote sensing
very high-resolution satellite imagery

UN SDGs

This output contributes to the following UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

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Khan, C. B., Goetz, K. T., Cubaynes, H. C., Robinson, C., Murnane, E., Aldrich, T., Sackett, M., Clarke, P. J., LaRue, M. A., White, T., Leonard, K., Ortiz, A., & Lavista Ferres, J. M. (2023). A Biologist’s Guide to the Galaxy: Leveraging Artificial Intelligence and Very High-Resolution Satellite Imagery to Monitor Marine Mammals from Space. Journal of Marine Science and Engineering, 11(3), Article 595. https://doi.org/10.3390/jmse11030595

Khan, CB, Goetz, KT, Cubaynes, HC, Robinson, C, Murnane, E, Aldrich, T, Sackett, M, Clarke, PJ, LaRue, MA, White, T, Leonard, K, Ortiz, A & Lavista Ferres, JM 2023, 'A Biologist’s Guide to the Galaxy: Leveraging Artificial Intelligence and Very High-Resolution Satellite Imagery to Monitor Marine Mammals from Space', Journal of Marine Science and Engineering, vol. 11, no. 3, 595. https://doi.org/10.3390/jmse11030595

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abstract = "Monitoring marine mammals is of broad interest to governments and individuals around the globe. Very high-resolution (VHR) satellites hold the promise of reaching remote and challenging locations to fill gaps in our knowledge of marine mammal distribution. The time has come to create an operational platform that leverages the increased resolution of satellite imagery, proof-of-concept research, advances in cloud computing, and machine learning to monitor the world{\textquoteright}s oceans. The Geospatial Artificial Intelligence for Animals (GAIA) initiative was formed to address this challenge with collaborative innovation from government agencies, academia, and the private sector. In this paper, we share lessons learned, challenges faced, and our vision for how VHR satellite imagery can enhance our understanding of cetacean distribution in the future.",

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A Biologist’s Guide to the Galaxy: Leveraging Artificial Intelligence and Very High-Resolution Satellite Imagery to Monitor Marine Mammals from Space

Abstract

Bibliographical note

Keywords

UN SDGs

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