{"id":46481,"date":"2026-07-22T01:32:10","date_gmt":"2026-07-21T17:32:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/terrabyte-ai-expands-its-earth-search-engine-with-satellite-imagery-partnership-and-interactive-features\/"},"modified":"2026-07-22T01:32:10","modified_gmt":"2026-07-21T17:32:10","slug":"terrabyte-ai-expands-its-earth-search-engine-with-satellite-imagery-partnership-and-interactive-features","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/terrabyte-ai-expands-its-earth-search-engine-with-satellite-imagery-partnership-and-interactive-features\/","title":{"rendered":"TerraByte AI expands its \u2018Earth Search Engine\u2019 with satellite imagery partnership and interactive features"},"content":{"rendered":"
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An interactive map displays the sites of wildfires, earthquakes and severe weather events, with links to satellite imagery. (Credit: TerraByte) <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Two months after emerging from stealth mode, TerraByte AI is using artificial intelligence and a new partnership to upgrade its \u201cEarth Search Engine.\u201d<\/p>\n

The startup, which maintains operations in Seattle as well as San Francisco, has just rolled out a TerraByte News service that pinpoints wildfires, earthquakes and severe weather events on an interactive map. Users can follow links to access news reports, social media posts and satellite views related to selected events.<\/p>\n

The satellite views include open-source images from NASA\u2019s Earth observation system as well as Europe\u2019s Sentinel satellites. And now the database also features high-resolution pictures provided through a newly announced partnership with Texas-based SkyFi. The partnership gives TerraByte\u2019s users access to SkyFi\u2019s self-service Earth intelligence platform, which offers satellite and aerial imagery from more than 300 sources at prices as low as $15 per image.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn May, when we came out of stealth, we made the planet searchable,\u201d TerraByte CEO Rishi Madhok told GeekWire. \u201cNow, the moment you find something, you can hold the imagery in your hands within a day. The next step is making Earth intelligence as routine as a web search \u2014 you ask, you see, and then you act.\u201d <\/p>\n

Madhok and Fuxun Yu, TerraByte\u2019s chief technology officer, founded the company last year as a follow-up to their work on geospatial data analysis at Microsoft. They developed search tools that can recognize features of interest in satellite images and deliver data-driven insights in response to natural-language queries.<\/p>\n

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TerraByte\u2019s digest entry for \u201cForest Fires in France\u201d combines satellite imagery and news reports. (TerraByte Graphic)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Over the past couple of months, TerraByte\u2019s team has grown from three to five employees, Madhok said. \u201cOur goal is to grow the team even further this year, because we are seeing a lot of traction from users since we came out of stealth,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cA lot of traction is coming from insurance [companies], from the government, from mining, from other areas where there is the possibility to see things,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd finance, right? A lot of quant firms and hedge funds want to see all of this activity coming in.\u201d<\/p>\n

One key application involves emergency response. \u201cOur big focus is on catastrophes, particularly wildfires,\u201d Madhok said. \u201cOur vision is that anybody should be able to track this \u2014 not limited to just journalists, but including everyone who is living in those areas and wants to see what\u2019s going on.\u201d <\/p>\n

Madhok expects the revenue-sharing partnership with SkyFi to open up new opportunities. \u201cI\u2019m happy to say that we have customers who are paying us,\u201d he said. \u201cFrom that perspective, we\u2019re already doing well.\u201d<\/p>\n

Advances in AI are creating still more opportunities. \u201cNow you can do searches not just using text, but using images, which we call visual search,\u201d he said. \u201cLet\u2019s say you\u2019re searching for a certain kind of vessel, and it\u2019s very hard for you to describe it in natural language. You can just take a screenshot of it, upload it, and within seconds it will literally search for what you were looking for.\u201d<\/p>\n

Looking ahead, Madhok and his teammates plan to add people power to the power of AI.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is the first version of a platform that we\u2019re going to release, and we obviously want to learn more from our users,\u201d he said. \u201cWe want this platform to become crowdsourced, so that people who are local to a region can add more information from that perspective, because then it starts becoming more powerful. We don\u2019t want just TerraByte to be the owner of this.\u201d<\/p>\n

Madhok shared a video on LinkedIn that shows how TerraByte\u2019s platform can quickly find high-resolution imagery of a shipwreck in Washington state\u2019s Possession Sound:<\/strong><\/p>\n