Hydrosat Hires Leading NASA Thermal Infrared Ecosystem Scientist

Josh is one of the worlds leading researchers using thermal satellite data for environmental analysis.

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Thursday, August 19, 2021
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HYDROSAT
Summary
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  • Josh is one of the worlds leading researchers using thermal satellite data for environmental analysis.
  • Hydrosat is flying a multi-spectral and thermal infrared mission with Loft Orbital on a SpaceX Falcon 9.
  • When I learned about Hydrosat from my NASA JPL colleagues, I realized that they were filling a clear need, Fisher said.
  • Hydrosat is a data analytics company that uses thermal infrared imagery to provide unprecedented insights for commercial and government customers.


Hydrosat, a company developing an infrared satellite constellation, announced that Dr. Joshua Fisher is joining the company as Science Lead. Fisher comes to Hydrosat from the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), where he most recently served as the Science Lead on NASA’s ECOSTRESS mission.

“We are thrilled to add Dr. Fisher to our team,” Hydrosat CEO Pieter Fossel said in a statement. “Josh is one of the world’s leading researchers using thermal satellite data for environmental analysis. He will add significant expertise depth and scientific reach to Hydrosat’s team.”

Hydrosat is flying a multi-spectral and thermal infrared mission with Loft Orbital on a SpaceX Falcon 9. The company plans to launch an additional 16-satellite constellation with the capacity to scan the entire globe on a daily basis, generating science quality infrared data and an analytics-ready land surface temperature product.

Fisher believes that Hydrosat can be central to many temperature-related Earth applications. He sees Hydrosat’s impact in agriculture as just one of many critical environmental applications, ranging from natural disasters, like forest fires and volcanic eruptions, to the management of aquaculture.

“When I learned about Hydrosat from my NASA JPL colleagues, I realized that they were filling a clear need,” Fisher said. “I immediately wanted to help Hydrosat become successful for the data alone.”

“Hydrosat is game-changing. No one else is on the path to achieve field-scale, daily, global thermal measurements. Hydrosat is the first to innovate through this gap. Through my work, I’ve learned that temperature represents the energy that unites nearly every process on Earth; being able to detect and track that energy is the life monitor of our planet,” Fisher said.

While at JPL, Fisher contributed to major Earth Science missions such as SMAP, GRACE, OCO, MODIS, and Landsat. After proposing ECOSTRESS in 2013, Fisher became Science Lead. ECOSTRESS is a thermal infrared mission launched to the International Space Station in 2018 that focuses on plant water use, stress, and drought. Earlier in his career, Fisher was a researcher at the University of Oxford where he worked on climate modeling and ecology.

As Hydrosat’s Science Lead, Fisher will be responsible for advancing the science of Hydrosat and connecting the data to the science community and application end-users.

In June, Hydrosat announced a $5 million seed round led by Cultivation Capital.

About Hydrosat

Hydrosat is a data analytics company that uses thermal infrared imagery to provide unprecedented insights for commercial and government customers. The company’s high-capacity thermal imagery affords a unique perspective on our planet, and Hydrosat’s advanced analytics convey precise crop yield forecasts and improved irrigation tools to financial and agribusiness customers around the globe.

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