A digital platform created by the UAE Space Agency will allow researchers, students and start-ups access to satellite images for their projects.
The agency has partnered with Abu Dhabi’s Space42, a space technology company that has developed the Geo-Spatial Analytics Platform – GIQ – to connect users to data from more than 300 satellites operated by partners such as Nasa, the European Space Agency and Maxar. Users would also have access to some of the UAE’s high-resolution satellites built by the Mohammed bin Rashid Space Centre.
Salem Butti Al Qubaisi, director general of the UAE Space Agency, said the platform was meant to make satellite data more accessible and easier to use.
“The next generation of GIQ marks a pivotal step towards addressing challenges in space data,” he said. “These include the multiplicity of service providers and the difficulty of dealing with each of them and responses due to the long time required for application procedures.”
He added that users often struggle to choose the best-suited satellite and that complicated procedures can make the process costly and time-consuming.
In its first phase, the GIQ platform will be free for participants of the agency’s Space Analytics and Solutions (SAS) programme, which also includes researchers, students, entrepreneurs and start-ups developing space-based applications.
The UAE Space Agency created SAS to make it easier for users to turn satellite data into applications that support the country’s growing space sector, monitoring environmental changes, improving urban planning and managing natural resources.
Other organisations in the public and private sectors will be able to use the platform’s services through commercial contracts with Space42.
Hasan Al Hosani, chief executive of smart solutions at Space42, said the platform would help to “democratise” access to space data.
“This collaboration exemplifies how public-private partnerships can accelerate innovation and position the UAE as a hub for advanced space applications that drive economic growth and competitiveness,” he said.
Users can request both archived and new satellite images from international agencies and private providers through the platform.
GIQ also features built-in AI models and analytics for studying land use, environmental changes and weather patterns, helping reduce pressure on software systems.
The GIQ platform brings together data from 10 satellite imagery providers, including Space42, Airbus, BlackSky, Nasa’s Landsat, Maxar, Planet, Satellogic, the European Space Agency’s Sentinel-1 and Sentinel-2, Umbra and the MBRSC.
Dr Sarath Raj, project director of the satellite ground station at Dubai’s Amity University, said GIQ will make it easier for students and researchers like him to work.
He said it helps bridge the gap between raw satellite data and real-world research projects that requires the use of satellites to study and solve problems.
“Traditionally, researchers rely on multiple software tools and fragmented data sources to process satellite imagery, often facing challenges in integration, accessibility and consistency,” he said.
“With GIQ’s unified AI-driven environment and access to data sets from over 300 satellites, our students and researchers can now seamlessly analyse regional phenomena such as urban heat islands, coastal changes, atmospheric dynamic and space weather impacts using real-time, pre-processed data.”
He said it could also help boost innovation and create internationally competitive programmes. The platform is now available online at GIQ.ae.
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Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy told the German parliament that. Russia had erected a new wall across Europe.
"It's not a Berlin Wall -- it is a Wall in central Europe between freedom and bondage and this Wall is growing bigger with every bomb" dropped on Ukraine, Zelenskyy told MPs.
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The smuggler
Eldarir had arrived at JFK in January 2020 with three suitcases, containing goods he valued at $300, when he was directed to a search area.
Officers found 41 gold artefacts among the bags, including amulets from a funerary set which prepared the deceased for the afterlife.
Also found was a cartouche of a Ptolemaic king on a relief that was originally part of a royal building or temple.
The largest single group of items found in Eldarir’s cases were 400 shabtis, or figurines.
Khouli conviction
Khouli smuggled items into the US by making false declarations to customs about the country of origin and value of the items.
According to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, he provided “false provenances which stated that [two] Egyptian antiquities were part of a collection assembled by Khouli's father in Israel in the 1960s” when in fact “Khouli acquired the Egyptian antiquities from other dealers”.
He was sentenced to one year of probation, six months of home confinement and 200 hours of community service in 2012 after admitting buying and smuggling Egyptian antiquities, including coffins, funerary boats and limestone figures.
For sale
A number of other items said to come from the collection of Ezeldeen Taha Eldarir are currently or recently for sale.
Their provenance is described in near identical terms as the British Museum shabti: bought from Salahaddin Sirmali, "authenticated and appraised" by Hossen Rashed, then imported to the US in 1948.
- An Egyptian Mummy mask dating from 700BC-30BC, is on offer for £11,807 ($15,275) online by a seller in Mexico
- A coffin lid dating back to 664BC-332BC was offered for sale by a Colorado-based art dealer, with a starting price of $65,000
- A shabti that was on sale through a Chicago-based coin dealer, dating from 1567BC-1085BC, is up for $1,950
