Remote Sensing Technologies Global Markets to Reach $18.9 Billion

November 13, 2018

WELLESLEY, Mass., Nov.13, 2018–The remote sensing market is in the midst of a profound transformation from a market dominated by relatively few large firms to a market crafted of several small firms. According to the BCC Research report Remote Sensing Technologies and Global Markets, this change is due to growing free data and free software markets.

The new generation of remote sensing technology offers more frequent and less expensive data collection that uses lightweight drone aircraft and satellites. Built from off-the-shelf parts and delivered to orbit by commercial rocket companies, these technologies are lowering the cost of remote sensing from the $10 per square centimeter to pennies.

Remote sensing is the science of obtaining information about objects or areas from a distance, typically from aircraft or satellites. The industry’s global network of precisely calibrated instruments mounted on airborne, aquatic, space-based and terrestrial platforms capture infinitesimally small amounts of energy. This energy provides information for applications from predicting harvests to protecting wildlife and preventing pandemics.

The global remote sensing market in 2017 was worth $10.1 billion, and is expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 10.7%, reaching $18.9 billion in 2023.

Research Highlights

• Europe is expected to see the highest growth, reaching $5.9 billion in 2023 at a higher than average CAGR of 11.8%.
• North American is expected to grow at a CAGR of 11.6%, followed by Asia Pacific at a lower CAGR of 9.6%.
• The arrival of drones has greatly affected the industry. BCC Research has calculated that one of the most valuable forms of airborne remote sensing, LIDAR imaging, can be performed for $50 a square meter, about one-ninth the price of acquiring the same data with a small manned aircraft.

“Since its inception, the remote sensing community has been dominated by countries with space-faring capabilities, hence the leadership of the U.S. and Europe, with lesser contributions by Japan and India,” the report notes. “In all of those countries, prevailing wisdom has held that the future of remote sensing would continue to resemble its past as customers sought out higher and higher resolution and more detailed imagery and data. When one-meter space imagery, previously a closely held national secret, became legal for sale in the U.S. in the late 20th century, the commercial remote sensing industry bloomed – although satellite images of earth were hardly novel.”

Editors/reporters requesting analyst interviews should contact Eric Surber at press@bccresearch.com.

Remote Sensing Technologies and Global Markets( IAS022F )
Publish Date: Nov 2018    

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