WASHINGTON — Earth observation company Satellogic is partnering with analytics firm SynMax to develop AI-powered intelligence products built around the company’s new Merlin satellite constellation. The technology is aimed at defense and intelligence customers that want continuous monitoring rather than individual satellite images.
The companies said June 23 that SynMax will integrate data collected by Satellogic’s satellites with additional intelligence sources through its analytics platform, aiming to help customers detect changes, close coverage gaps and identify potential threats more quickly.
The partnership comes as geospatial intelligence providers seek to move beyond selling imagery and instead deliver intelligence products that combine satellite data, artificial intelligence and analytics. Government agencies are looking for systems that can continuously monitor areas of interest and generate alerts, rather than requiring analysts to manually search through imagery.
Satellogic operates about 35 Earth observation satellites and is preparing to begin deploying its next-generation Merlin constellation. The company says Merlin is designed to provide daily global coverage at one-meter resolution and support persistent intelligence applications. The first Merlin satellite is forecast to launch in October.
“Earth observation is shifting from collecting images to delivering continuous intelligence,” Emiliano Kargieman, Satellogic’s co-founder and chief executive, said in a statement.
Kargieman described SynMax as “exactly the kind of analytics partner that turns persistent global intelligence into decisions customers can act on.”
The collaboration reflects a broader trend across the geospatial intelligence industry, where satellite operators are partnering with analytics firms to offer higher-value intelligence products. Advances in artificial intelligence and cloud computing have enabled companies to combine imagery with other data sources to automate the detection of patterns, anomalies and changes across large geographic areas.
SynMax, which specializes in applying artificial intelligence to geospatial and maritime intelligence problems, said the partnership will allow customers to move from searching for activity to receiving actionable intelligence.
“For too long, the warfighter has had to know exactly where to look before a satellite could help them,” said Eric Anderson, SynMax’s chief executive. “Satellogic’s constellation gives us daily coverage of the entire planet at one-meter resolution, and SynMax fuses it with the full range of intelligence sources to surface the threats no one thought to task.”
