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NASA teams generate and manage a staggering amount of data—their archive of Earth science data alone is expected to balloon to 250 petabytes by the end of 2025. While much of this data is already available to the general public, accessing the archives from its Earth information center and understanding the highly technical data within is generally reserved for experienced researchers and scientists. Until now. NASA is partnering with Microsoft to create an AI chatbot to make this information more accessible to everyone.
Known as Earth Copilot, this revolutionary platform can answer specific questions about the effects of extreme weather events, current air quality in specific regions, deforestation patterns around the world, and more.
“Finding and extracting insights requires navigating technical interfaces, understanding data formats, and mastering the intricacies of geospatial analysis—specialized skills that very few non-technical users possess,” according to Tyler Bryson, Microsoft’s Corporate VP of Health and Public Sector Industries. By using next-gen AI to provide easy access to this data and using Microsoft AI to translate technical concepts into simplified responses, Earth Copilot makes it easy for anyone to tap into NASA’s wealth of information.
“By enabling users to interact with the data through simple, plain language queries, we’re helping to democratize access to spaceborne information,” Microsoft Cloud Solution Architect Minh Nguyen said.
The Future of Earth Copilot
Still in its infancy, Earth Copilot is currently only available to NASA scientists and researchers. Once internal testing is complete, however, it will be integrated directly into NASA’s Visualization, Exploration, and Data Analysis (VEDA) platform. VEDA is a cloud-based, open-source set of services and tools meant to facilitate the processing and visualization of Earth science data. By drawing information from NASA’s extensive archives, VEDA provides access to thousands of terabytes worth of real-world data.
Once it’s made available to the general public, Earth Copilot will make it easier for everyone—regardless of their background—to access advanced data about our Earth. Although it’s still too early to predict how this will affect Earth science in the coming years, the recent NASA news is certainly a unique implementation of AI and a step in the right direction for the field of data analytics as a whole.