Interview with GeoOptics: Using satellite radar to track forest biomass and freshwater at scale
Satellite Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) is increasingly used to monitor forests and freshwater at scale, and GeoOptics is working to make these capabilities more accessible.
In this Member Spotlight: Ask the Nature Tech Expert interview, GeoOptics, which has NASA JPL roots, explains its geodetic radar approach and its plan to begin deployment in 2026. The team describes initial products including canopy height mapping to support biomass and carbon estimates, and water monitoring that measures river and lake levels, snowpack, and snow water equivalent to assess water availability. They outline how repeated 3D measurements across diverse landscapes could reduce monitoring costs, discuss current cost constraints in MRV and dMRV, note engagement with standards organizations such as Verra and ART, and highlight technical partnerships that are testing early datasets against field measurements.
Image Credits: Unsplash
Q: What’s the story behind GeoOptics? Who are the people behind it and how did the company start?
Our original founder, Tom Yunck, spun GeoOptics out of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Lab (JPL) many years ago to accelerate the use of advanced techniques developed there for measuring the Earth’s atmosphere. With that mission, we launched and operated a total of 10 weather satellites, providing data to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and private companies.
In the process, we realized that building on that technology, we could create much cheaper, faster, and more accurate measurements of the volume of objects on the Earth’s surface using Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR). We have developed that technology under a sequence of government contracts. We are excited to begin using it in 2026 to characterize vegetative cover and ecosystems by making repeated, inexpensive 3D maps of vegetation and freshwater. We are now building out our team to maximize our technology’s impact on nature and climate. Alex Saltman, our CEO, has led the team for the last four years, while Tom is the CTO. Christina McCain has been working with the team for more than a year and recently joined full-time as Vice President, focusing on nature-based solutions.
Q: What are the key environmental and societal challenges GeoOptics is aiming to address with its technology?
The world is facing a number of challenges at once, and many involve the complex ecosystems that support flora, fauna and economic development around the world. Zooming in, one of those concerns that has major impacts for climate is the loss of tropical forests and other carbon-rich ecosystems.
Tropical forests are threatened by deforestation, exploitation and extraction, putting local communities and the global carbon cycle at risk. Communities, governments, scientists, and other stakeholders are creating innovative sustainable landscapes that preserve nature and support local economies. There is financing to scale this tremendous potential, but it requires many different approaches and tools suited to each ecological context and financial reality.
Our first goal is to provide products that detail above-ground biomass, carbon content, and vegetation structure, which tells us a lot about an ecosystem, and monitor them over time. But we’re also excited to discover how our data can help go beyond carbon and biomass, like characterizing biodiversity and other ecosystem services, measuring freshwater availability, monitoring agricultural and agroforestry production, and other potential applications. Our goal is to see nature-positive markets flourish because sustainable production enables sustainable livelihoods.
Image Credit: Unsplash
Q: What do you see as the major barriers to taking meaningful action using Earth observation data - whether that's funding, policy, accessibility, or awareness? What’s currently holding this space back from reaching its full potential?
Honestly, it’s about the cost. The technology for gathering high resolution Earth observation data from space already exists. And interest and confidence in what’s now called Digital Monitoring Reporting and Verification (dMRV) is growing, but cost is a huge issue. The particular types of data and resolution needed to monitor nature at scale are too expensive for many nature finance mechanisms–cheap data doesn’t get it done and it's not available everywhere. Measuring and monitoring ecosystems across the globe demands a massive amount of data collection and processing. With current technology, that’s hugely expensive in terms of both dollars and time.
That means that many nature conservation projects never get off the ground, and those that do are spending far too much of their budget on MRV, leaving too little to go to the communities that manage and live in the landscapes being protected or restored.
Q: Could you walk us through GeoOptics’ core offerings? What’s different about your approach?
Our Geodetic Radar technology will reduce the cost of three dimensional EO data by orders of magnitude, and dramatically increase availability. Combined with AI designed for distinct ecosystems, we believe we can bring the combination of precision and price needed to enable applications that have long been contemplated, but not yet achieved.
We are planning to produce a number of data products from our new satellites:
First, ecosystem characterization, particularly measurement and monitoring of canopy height to improve estimates of biomass and carbon in several different ecosystems. Our radar determines a height measurement in each pixel, which will allow us to create a high-resolution 3D map of forest canopy height and also see gaps and emergent tree crown heights. From this data, we will characterize the above-ground biomass, carbon, and other key variables, and the change in these variables over time.
Second, we will be measuring the water level in lakes, ponds and rivers as well as the height of mountain snowpack and snow water equivalent. From repeated monitoring, we will create water volume products to provide water managers, farmers and other stakeholders deep insight into water availability. In many ecosystems, this may also add important information about future ecosystem health and/or risk.
Image Credits: Unsplash
Q: Are you able to share 1 or more of your favorite success stories to date?
We haven’t launched our new radar satellites yet, but we are encouraged by the tremendous response we’ve seen from prospective users so far. It’s a great feeling to meet with some of the world’s biggest experts on nature-based solutions and remote sensing, and the people working on the ground to preserve forests around the world, and see the real enthusiasm they have for our solution. It’s exciting to think that we will be helping these leaders make really impactful changes in local communities and across the world. We’ve been able to form some strong technical partnerships with both non-profit and for-profit companies with incredible expertise, who are interested in digging into our early data sets. Some of them are focused on conservation and enforcement, some on carbon crediting, and even others on sustainable forest products. We’re excited to begin joint exploration on applications for some of their biggest questions.
Q: How do you see your work fitting within the broader "nature tech" ecosystem? In your view, how is satellite-derived data evolving to support environmental and nature-positive decision making?
We would like to be a techy market enabler for sustainable and nature-positive economies. From supporting carbon markets, to helping companies understand the ecosystem impact of their supply chains, to providing insights for sustainable farming – data needs to be high quality *and* affordable. We’re looking to lower the cost of entry into these nature-positive markets, while providing transparency and confidence with real data that actually answers the most important questions.
No one company is going to solve all the massive challenges ahead, and we are partnering with a great set of organizations that are at the leading edge of nature-based solutions to environmental and economic challenges (more announcements to come).
It’s also important to remember that, in addition to creating better data and tools, the market itself has to be ready for uptake. Direct biomass and carbon measurements are a great example. Major market standards bodies, from Verra to the Architecture for REDD+ Transactions (ART) have begun examining how new remotely sensed data can be incorporated into methodologies that evolved using older technologies and approaches - and we are engaging in those conversations at an early stage.
Q: Where are you going next? What are you working on at the moment? What’s on your current roadmap - and what’s your long-term vision?
Right now we are laser-focused on getting our first radar satellites to space and look forward to working with our partners to ensure that we gather the right data from day 1. When we launch, we are on an actual rocket launch, which is exciting and nerve-wracking!
As we grow, we’re excited to turn the distinct, isolated satellites creating snapshots of the Earth right now into a network of satellites creating a real-time, holographic model of the Earth for everyone to use.
Q: With increasing global attention on climate and biodiversity - from COP summits to market regulations - how is the landscape shifting for companies like GeoOptics? Is awareness and demand for Earth data accelerating in the right direction? How are changing politics changing things (if at all).
The path to nature-positive governance and economics is a long one, and at different times, different parts of the globe will lead the charge, while others lag behind. But on the whole we are moving forward. We see global demand for usable information about natural landscapes growing rapidly due to the efforts of people around the world - companies and organizations like those in the NTC. We’re particularly excited about ongoing policy development around landscapes and climate in the EU and elsewhere, increasing confidence in nature-based solutions in the voluntary market, and the first phase and evolution of mechanisms like CORSIA (international aviation) as a market driver.
Q: What led you to the Nature Tech Collective? How do you think GeoOptics benefits from being associated with the community?
We learned of NTC through a chance introduction and a barside conversation at NY Climate Week. Informal conversations and connection can be the most important! We’ve already learned a lot from the community, as newcomers who are still mostly in listening mode, and look forward to contributing a lot more soon!
Q: How can others support the work you do and what kind of support would be of most use to your organization’s goals right now?
We’re a satellite company, and a lot of our expertise is in that arena. So we’re really focused on learning from those who are closer (than 500 kms!) to the trees. We’ve been so appreciative of the conversations we’ve had over the last couple of years with remote sensing and geospatial experts working in the nature space, as well as incredibly knowledgeable practitioners on the ground. We’re looking forward to building more partnerships to test out new data and products as they come to life, as well as expand our ideas of what we can do. We’ve lined up some fantastic technical partnerships to test our pilot data against field measurements, but we’d love to expand the breadth of those and to exchange with NTC members using EO data, especially those also working on the ground, to deepen our understanding of use cases and challenges in the field.
Q: This is your space to share anything additional you’d like to - a quote, further information, a plug. Your choice!
We started this journey with a simple question: “If you could get inexpensive, high-resolution, 3D images of the Earth’s surface, what would you do with that?” We have now heard a lot of answers, but we learn something new from each one–so please reach out if you have any cool ideas!
To learn more about GeoOptics and follow their journey, visit their website here or follow them on LinkedIn here.
