Orbital Recon: Using AI To Observe A Habitable Planet: Waters Offshore Of Kuwait
The turquoise waters southeast of the Kuwaiti island of Failaka are captured in this image acquired by the Φsat-2 mission.
Failaka is about 20 km off Kuwait’s coast at the head of the Persian Gulf. The various colours in the water come from a combination of wind patterns over the region and sediment in the water surrounding the island.
Throughout the year, wind blows sand and dust from soil disposal activities towards the Gulf – and the particles become sediment in the water around Failaka. The island’s position in the path of the prevailing wind creates the swirling patterns that appear in hues of blue and green in the image.
This Φsat-2 true-colour image was acquired on 25 March 2025, during the satellite’s nine-month commissioning phase after its launch in August 2024. Commissioning was concluded in the second quarter of this year and the satellite is now delivering scientific data.
Image: The turquoise waters southeast of the Kuwaiti island of Failaka are captured in this image acquired by the Φsat-2 mission. (note the container ship and smaller vessel at the bottom of the image) — ESA Larger image
Orbiting at an altitude of 510 km, Φ-sat-2 is a cubesat that generates images using seven multispectral bands, from visible to near-infrared, with a ground sampling distance of about 5 m. This type of remote-sensing instrument is particularly useful for environmental monitoring, land management and mapping.
The mission was designed with the purpose of demonstrating and testing the use of onboard Artificial Intelligence (AI) in Earth observation. This image shows some of the mission’s AI capabilities, such as inspecting the images to determine the presence of the ocean, the absence of clouds and autonomously detect and classify vessels. The small, bright red feature visible at the bottom of the image is a commercial ship.
The same AI application can also establish whether or not a given scene (or area) of marine traffic requires further monitoring or investigation. Other AI applications on board are used to compress satellite images, to detect marine pollution and wildfires and to identify and analyse disaster areas, for example zones affected by earthquakes or floods, and convert satellite images into street maps that can be used by emergency response teams.
Astrobiology, Remote Sensing,
