arnegie scientist Greg Asner and the Reefscape Project play a crucial role in a new partnership that’s responding to the crisis of the declining health of coral reefs. The project will develop global maps and monitoring systems using satellite imagery and big data processing. Less than a quarter of the world’s reefs are mapped or monitored using visual assessment from scuba and light aircraft or, in some places, lower-resolution satellite images. A new collaboration with Paul G. Allen Philanthropies, Planet Labs Inc., Carnegie, University of Queensland, and the Hawai’i Institute of Marine Biology is taking on one of the world’s most intractable challenges: to develop tools to support, inform, and inspire critical conservation measures to save our diminishing coral reefs. The partnership will provide the first-ever seamless mosaic of high-resolution satellite imagery of the world’s coral reefs and engage with the global coral reef science and management communities to deliver accurate reef maps and see how they are changing. The mosaic, maps, and eventual change-detection system will be made available to conservationists, planners, and policymakers. “We need to know what is occurring in this hidden world of shallow coral reefs if we have any hope to save them,” said Art Min, vice president of impact for Paul Allen, “Coral reefs cover less than 1% of the ocean surface, and yet nearly 1 billion people and 25% of all marine life depend on them.” Asner and his team will use artificial intelligence combined with field-based observations to guide calibrations of Planet’s 3.7-meter resolution satellite data to account for atmospheric effects, glare, reflectivity, and other features that make it difficult to penetrate the ocean’s surface for mapping—all of which will allow scientists from the University of Queensland to classify the reefs. The Carnegie team will also build a novel coral reef-monitoring system using daily Planet satellite data to Paul G. Allen Philanthropies Microsoft cofounder and philanthropist Paul G. Allen was deeply committed to ocean health and had a growing portfolio of programs targeted at the protection of the marine ecosystem. --------------- To learn more VISIT: paulallen.com or pgaphilanthropies.org. Planet Labs Inc. Planet is an integrated aerospace and data analytics company that operates history’s largest fleet of Earth-imaging satellites, collecting a massive amount of information about our changing planet. Planet is driven by a mission to image all of Earth’s landmass every day, and make global change visible, accessible, and actionable. --------------- To learn more visit: planet.com and follow on Twitter at @ planetlabs PARTNERS: First-Ever Global and Dynamic Map of Coral Reefs C 4