How the MediaTech Hub start-up Vertical52 uses satellite data for journalism
They have become indispensable for satellite TV, navigation devices, weather forecasts and, of course, the military: There are more than 5,500 satellites orbiting the earth in space – including around 500 earth observation satellites. Space agencies such as the ESA or satellite operators such as Planet Labs or Maxar Technologies record every corner of the earth – images that can be very valuable for journalistic research. For example, agricultural or military developments can be tracked from space or entire regions can be documented over a longer period of time. The images are now also available in such detail that you could recognize a person from them.
The startup Vertical52 sees itself as the first news agency from space and makes high-resolution, commercial satellite data accessible to journalists, publishers and NGOs. To this end, the two founders, journalist Marcus Pfeil and entrepreneur Michael Anthony, are developing a platform that makes satellite and radar data discoverable, evaluates and visualizes it.
Marcus Pfeil has worked as a journalist for more than 20 years and has been responsible for award-winning research projects. Michael Anthony, also originally a journalist, most recently worked in the microinsurance business and was involved in remote sensing for agricultural projects in Africa and Asia. Their business model is based on two pillars. Firstly, they are able to provide high-resolution images from space within a day. Secondly, the team itself carries out complex analyses and investigative research.
Space-based data
Satellite journalism is still in its infancy, but with improved access to data, this form of forensic evidence is becoming increasingly important. At the beginning of the war in Ukraine, for example, it was possible to track Russian military convoys in real time. And the New York Times showed in an investigation that the massacres of the Butcha population were carried out by the Russian military. Satellite images identified the bodies of Ukrainian civilians on the streets. They had already been lying there during the Russian occupation. Not only war crimes, but also natural phenomena such as flooding, deforestation and the advancing aridity of the forests are shown from a different perspective.
Much of this data is theoretically freely accessible via agencies and providers, but in practice it is not easy for everyone to use. The Vertical52 platform processes image requests automatically. It sees itself as a curator, says co-founder Marcus Pfeil. “Satellite data can also be used to look into the future. If you want to observe something over a longer period of time, we can set up tasking – such as observing an Amazon warehouse every 14 days,” says Pfeil.
Research from above: Forced labor in cotton production
Vertical52 supported NDR, for example, for a report on cotton and forced labor. It began with the assumption that the cotton in the fields of Xinjiang is harvested by hand by Uyghur forced laborers – and not by machines, as the Chinese government claims. A large proportion of Chinese cotton exports come from this region in western China. At the same time, many of the labor camps in which ethnic minorities such as the Uyghurs are oppressed are located there. Vertical52 compared the images of the cotton fields with reference objects in Kyrgyzstan and oriented itself to the crop rotations: What does cotton look like from above? When does it flower? When is it harvested? The White Wall Index, an index used in agriculture, was also used. In the images of the western Chinese region, the cotton fields could thus be clearly identified – and in the next step, the fields harvested by hand could be distinguished from those harvested by machine on the basis of the surface structure. A method that can be scaled to large areas, says Pfeil. “If a research field is uncharted territory for us, we seek scientific advice to make sure that we evaluate it cleanly, correctly and validly,” he says. The data from the research proved this: Around 96 percent of cotton production in the region is based on harvesting by hand. The probability that we are wearing a T-shirt in Germany that was produced with cotton from forced labor is therefore very high.
The image data is also an important research tool for NGOs. Together with Terre des Hommes, Vertical52 investigated the extent of child labor in illegal mica mines in India. In disused, illegally operated and therefore unsecured mines, children as young as four are digging for the coveted material – and are often buried. Satellite and radar data were used to show how the supposedly abandoned mines in Jharkhand in eastern India have grown over the years.
Vertical52 is planning a third pillar in the future: a foundation-based fellowship program will support journalists in countries with limited press freedom by providing assistance and knowledge transfer. This could also give smaller local newsrooms with limited budgets access to satellite data-based research. This is because the high-resolution images from space need experienced translators to bring the stories back down to earth.
Vertical52 will soon be officially part of the MediaTech Hub. They were previously selected for MIZ Babelsberg’s Media Founders Program, which is run in collaboration with the MTH Accelerator.
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The media technologies of the future are already being used today – not only in the entertainment sector but in a wide variety of industries. For our MediaTech Hub Potsdam blog, we talk to tech enthusiasts, entrepreneurs and researchers once a month and tell the stories behind their innovative business models, ideas, projects and collaborations.
