Abstract
THIS REPORT:
- Provides a comprehensive overview of the remote sensing industry
- Describes GPS, GIS, and remote sensing technologies, as well as important
applications such as weather forecasting, intelligence gathering, climate
change, public health and more
- Includes detailed market analysis of the 20 application areas for remote
sensing, with historical data, compounded growth rates, and five-year
forecasts to 2014, covering each region of the world, the four types of remote
sensing platforms, and the 10 general types of remote sensing instruments
- Discusses important technological advancements
- Offers a patent analysis detailing important innovations
- Profiles the major players in the remote sensing industry.
INTRODUCTION
Remote Sensing Technologies and Global Markets describes the fundamentals of
remote sensing technology and provides 2009 through 2014 global, U.S. and
regional forecasts for the 20 most robust applications for remotes sensing
products, 11 basic types of remote sensing instruments and four basic types of
instrument platforms. The report is divided into 30 chapters and contains 144
tables.
STUDY GOAL AND OBJECTIVES
Substantial changes have taken place in the remote sensing market since BCC
Research first explored the topic in its 2007 Market Research Report titled
Remote Sensing Technologies and Global Markets. This study describes the
impact of those changes and presents forecasts for the global and regional
markets for remote sensing products through 2014.
REASONS FOR DOING THE STUDY
To say that remote sensing is in the midst of profound turmoil underestimates
the case. While it is true that many of the changes anticipated in the 2007
BCC study, such as the launch of new space-based platforms have taken place on
or close to schedule, a series of low-probability and unpredictable turnabouts
have also taken place. The failed launch of NASA' s Orbiting Carbon Observatory
and an instrument connection failure at the San Andreas Fault Observatory at
Depth (SAFOD) have significantly set back important climate and earth science
studies. The global financial crisis has had an even more pervasive effect.
BCC estimates that it has reduced the demand for remote sensing products in 16
of 20 application areas, resulting in a nearly $500 million shortfall between
the 2009 requirement that BCC had forecast in its 2007 study and current
demand. Counterbalancing those negative developments is a series of decisions
and high-level appointments by the "science-friendly" Obama administration. In
a speech delivered to the National Academy of Sciences shortly after his
inauguration, President Obama set a goal of increasing the national investment
in research and development to more than 3% of the U.S. gross domestic
product. Although he was not specific on how that total would be reached, the
seriousness with which his administration views science as a driver of future
economic growth became apparent in the allocation of funding through the
American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA). (See table below.)
The ARRA contains numerous programs that will speed the adoption of Geographic
Information Systems (GIS) by state and local governments, but it is far from
the only positive development. Even before passage of the ARRA provided an
influx of funding, the GIS industry had begun changing its business
relationships with suppliers of remotely sensed data. The net effects of the
economic setbacks of 2008, the secular shift toward GIS that was already in
progress and ARRA recovery allocations for 2009 and beyond is that the remote
sensing industry in 2009 is a far more complex enterprise than seemed possible
in 2007. In this study, BCC attempts to plot the trajectory of the remote
sensing as it leads the economy in recovering from the unwanted financial
development of 2008.
INTENDED AUDIENCE
This study will be of interest to market planners in industries serving those
20 application areas that define the remote sensing market. It will be equally
useful for those working in or with multinational organizations, national and
state governments and non-governmental organizations (NGOs), and those
involved with efforts to build or expand GIS.
SCOPE OF REPORT
This report focuses exclusively on products created from platform-mounted
remote sensors. Thus, it excludes instruments that: Require physical contact
with a substance, such as chromatographs Handheld devices and field
instruments Airport screening systems Products developed using national
defense and intelligence instruments or platforms Geographic information
system software, other than programs used in manipulating remotely sensed data.
This report is divided into 30 chapters.
Chapters 1 through 8 provide:
- An overview of the remote sensing industry
- An explanation of basic remote sensing operating concept
- A description of the 10 basic types of remote sensing instruments
- A description of the four types of remote sensing platforms
- Regional, instrument by application and platform by application estimates
of 2009 demand for remote sensing products
- Regional, instrument-by-application and platform-by-application forecasts
for the 5 years beginning in 2009
- An explanation of remote sensing image analysis techniques
- An explanation of the global positioning system (GPS) and geographic
information system (GIS) technology as it relates to remote sensing.
Chapters 9 through 28 describe each of the market-driven applications for
remote sensing and include estimates for 2009 and forecasts through 2014 by
region, platform and instrument for each of the 20 market-driven applications.
Chapter 29 offers a review of remote sensing patents, including patent
abstract and information about inventors and assignees. Chapter 30 concludes
the study with brief descriptions of the organizations that form the global
remote sensing community.
METHODOLOGY
To undertake this forecast, we analyze remote sensing products currently on
the market, announced products, interviews with industry leaders, U.S.
patents, and products referenced in forward-looking financial statements filed
with the U.S. Security and Exchange Commission. The value of imagery has been
calculated on the basis of published prices, and in the case of government
agencies, by extrapolating from published program budgets. This report
specifically omits handheld instruments and instruments that obtain data only
by coming in physical contact with substances. It excludes remote sensing
products generated within the government exclusively for noncommercial
purposes. An example of an excluded product would be a high-resolution image
taken by intelligence agency satellite and used to plan, execute and evaluate
a military operation. However, it includes imagery acquired from the private
sector by defense and intelligence agencies, such as imaging purchases made
under the Department of Defense' s (DOD) NextView program.
INFORMATION SOURCES
BCC studied more than 400 companies to obtain data for this study. We also
reviewed reports and studies prepared for peer-reviewed professional
literature, and reports by the technical staffs of the National Aeronautics
and Space Administration (NASA), the Department of Energy (DOE), the U.S.
Geologic Survey (USGS), the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), and the
Government Accountability Office (GAO), as well as presidential directive and
policy statements. In addition, we compiled data from scientific and technical
conferences, presentations prepared for financial analysts, the United
Nations, European Union, European Commission, European Space Agency and the
World Bank.
ANALYST' S CREDENTIALS
James Wilson is a noted technology analyst and author of more than 300
articles and several books dealing with science, medicine, technology and
business. Formerly the editor of the Princeton Business Journal and a senior
science and technology editor for Hearst Magazines, he is a member of the
National Association of Science Writers and American Medical Writers
Association. He has served on the adjunct faculty of Temple University and on
the staffs of Drexel University and the Academy of Natural Sciences. He is
also the author of the original 2007 BCC study, Remote Sensing Technologies
and Global Markets.In connection with his earlier works on remote sensing,
Wilson has made site visits to headquarters and operational facilities of the
major corporate, government and military facilities involved in the industry.
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