Autonomous balloons high in Earth鈥檚 atmosphere are taking incredibly detailed photos of neighbourhoods and individual homes in 28 US states, and from January 2025, they will be able to photograph the ground anywhere in the continental US. Such high-resolution aerial images can help those responding to climate-related natural disasters 鈥� but they also raise privacy concerns.
鈥淭his is the first time ever that nationwide aerial imaging at this resolution 鈥� 7 centimetres 鈥� is accessible,鈥� says , CEO and co-founder of the company behind the fleet, .
The resolution is significantly better than commercial Earth observation satellite services, which typically offer 30-centimetre-resolution images for the public. 鈥淭he only way to get it at scale today is by literally flying small, single-engine planes in 鈥榣awnmower鈥� patterns across cities, which is expensive, time-consuming and very limited by weather,鈥� says Matevosyan. She says Near Space Labs can do the same job 鈥渇aster, better and cheaper鈥�, using fewer than 100 of its high-flying balloons to cover the entire continental US.
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Much depends on whether these balloons are significantly cheaper than the fixed-wing aircraft currently used to take aerial imagery, says at the Carnegie Council for Ethics in International Affairs, a think tank in New York.
Near Space Labs can transport its deflated balloons and their payloads in pickup trucks and launch the lighter-than-air craft from the side of a road, says Matevosyan. The autonomous balloons soar up to stratospheric altitudes of between 18 and 24 kilometres while automatically identifying where to focus on the ground below and photographing that spot. These images are uploaded to the internet and the main camera payload is also physically retrieved: after snapping images, it detaches and floats back down to Earth using a parachute. Each 5-to-7-hour flight can take high-resolution images of areas of up to 1000 square kilometres 鈥� about the size of New York City鈥檚 five boroughs.
Such balloons could be especially helpful for providing quick aerial snapshots in the wake of natural disasters such as hurricane flooding or wildfires. 鈥淲hen we fly after a catastrophe, we鈥檙e able to help emergency responders and insurance companies assess damage and direct resources in a very effective way,鈥� says Matevosyan. The US Department of Agriculture has also provided funding for Near Space Labs鈥檚 wildfire monitoring and insurance risk assessment services, and the company鈥檚 insurance clients include Switzerland-based Swiss Re, one of the world鈥檚 largest reinsurance firms.
However, Michel warns of privacy risks from such high-resolution aerial imagery becoming more widely available. 鈥淚f it helps save lives, that鈥檚 a win, but the same things that make these tools pretty useful for disaster response can make them ultra useful for darker purposes, such as spying,鈥� he says.
US courts have previously ruled that persistent, wide-area aerial surveillance by law enforcement is . But many commercial uses of aerial imagery are legal 鈥� and such photography could produce sensitive data that companies may be tempted to monetise.
鈥淚nformation about your home, your activities, the kind of car you have, the size and composition of your family 鈥� 7-centimetre overhead imagery can hold clues to all of these things and more,鈥� says Michel. 鈥淥nce AI is applied to these images, as I鈥檓 sure it will [be], it becomes a form of big data that would, in the wrong hands, be extremely intrusive.鈥�
鈥淥ur commitment has always been to operate transparently and respect privacy,鈥� says Matevosyan. She says the company鈥檚 goal for its data is to improve climate resilience. 鈥淲e primarily work with insurance companies today, and we follow very strict privacy rules that are also dictated by our customers.鈥�
