Topics in Policy Analysis (Half-Term): Satellite Imagery for Policymakers, People, and the Planet

The rapidly growing fleet of Earth observation satellites has enabled the ability to image the entire planet on a daily basis. This course introduces fundamental concepts of remote sensing and geospatial information, builds on a number of hands-on exercises focused on climate change and examines additional use cases from humanitarian contexts and open-source intelligence. We explore opportunities and challenges of applying modern machine-learning techniques for analyzing satellite imagery at scale, consider limits policymaking, and discuss broader ethical issues related to surveillance and privacy.