Remote Sensing

Summary: Notes on satellite imagery, geospatial data products, and Earth observation technology. Last updated: 2026-08-23

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• The Technical Debt of Earth Embedding Products: Article comparing different earth embeddings. Argues that geospatial foundation model teams excel at training Embeddings on massive satellite datasets but fail at making them interoperable — each product (Clay, AlphaEarth, Presto, Tessera, etc.) uses different storage formats, coordinate systems, and tile schemes, creating a "distribution tax" paid per product per user. Recommends standardizing on cloud-native formats like GeoParquet and COG. Keywords: earth embeddings, geospatial foundation models, interoperability, GeoParquet, cloud-optimized formats, satellite imagery
• See Data for GeoLibre, a cloud-native desktop GIS with LiDAR and multi-format geospatial data support.