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#SMALLDATA #BIGDATA #SATELLITE

The next Big DataData data data. We just can’t seem to get enough. We live in a world where there are literallybillions of sensors spread across the globe and throughout LEO, MEO and GEO, watching andmonitoring as far as possible. Ominous as it sounds, some of that data is used everyday to improvelives; to better understand atmospheric conditions, predict weather, analyse traffic patterns, orforecast healthcare concerns. In today’s increasingly-digital world, data is impossible to ignore.

Data is a funny thing. We use it every day, whether weknow it or not. We might observe that, for example,walking down a particular high street, the number ofvisible homeless people has risen enormously over thelast five years; we might observe that the local bakeryhas always run out of our preferred loaf of bread beforenoon on a weekday; or we might deduce that road trafficis always quieter on a particular route on Fridays. Allthese examples of data can deliver us to certainactionable or non-actionable conclusions.

In today’s digital era, data is constantly beingmeasured, collected, reported and (hopefully) analysed.That data includes everything from scientific research,crime rates, unemployment rates, banking transactions,climate change, water levels, social media interactions,online shopping purchases, phone calls, text messages;some have even gone so far as to speculate whethersomething actually exists if it cannot be measured.

With data and the right analysis, businesses can makehuge profits from streamlining their products andmarketing, governments can (in theory) increaseefficiency and take steps to increase their effectiveness,and healthcare providers can anticipate changes indemand ahead of time.

Data has become big business in and of itself; salesof data analytics tools are expected to hit US$187 billionin 2019. Facebook recently found itself in hot water overdata privacy concerns, while the General Data ProtectionRegulation (GDPR) came into full effect on 25 May, muchto the dismay of marketing outlets and email inboxeseverywhere.

Big Data – Is bigger better?We’ve been hearing about Big Data for many years now.It seemed to enter the collective consciousness aroundthe start of this decade. While most of us in technicalfields will be familiar with the term, to many, it carriesno more meaning than other business jargon like BlueSky Thinking.

According to a 2016 definition: ‘Big Data representsthe information assets characterized by such a highvolume, velocity and variety to require specifictechnology and analytical methods for its transformationinto value.’ Essentially, Big Data is data too big for mostcommonly-used software tools to capture, manage and

process within a reasonable time period. So, just howbig is Big Data? That seems to be a moving goalpost,having grown from a few dozen terabytes in 2012 tomany exabytes today.

Where does Big Data come from? This colossalamount of both structured and unstructured data stemsfrom business transactions, machine-to-machine (M2M)and Internet of Things (IoT) interactions, social mediafunctions, satellite Earth observations, etc. The analysisand actionable applications of this Big Data are asdiverse as predictive manufacturing in the automotiveindustry, delivering personalised medicine andprescriptive analytics, streamlining the collection anddistribution of Information Technology (IT), or increasingproductivity and innovation in commercial organisationsand governmental entities.

Big Data is, to many, imperative to making businessdecisions. However, Big Data is not universally well-utilised or even supported or trusted. Big isn’t alwaysbetter, after all, and we’re now often hearing that BigData has become too big; there’s too much of it, and it’ssimply not possibly to usefully process all the data we’renow collecting. Instead, that data which was meant tohelp, is actually hindering. Indeed, it takes more thanjust the right tool to analyse the quantities of data we’reseeing now – many businesses lack the knowledge baseto conduct a meaningful analysis and are becomingbogged down.

The Small Data revolutionWhere Big Data is all about machines findingcorrelations, Small Data is about humans, and foridentifying causation. Small Data is simply data smallenough for human comprehension; in both volume andformat, it is accessible, informative and actionable.

Allen Bonde, former Vice President of Innovation atActuate (now part of OpenText), uses the followingdefinition: “Small data connects people with timely,meaningful insights (derived from Big Data and/or localsources), organised and packaged – often visually – tobe accessible, understandable, and actionable foreveryday tasks.”

The simplicity of Small Data compared with Big Datameans that businesses can utilise more tangible data

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sets faster by pinpointing exactly what they’re lookingfor, making analysis more facile, without the need ofstate-of-the-art equipment. Small Data helps businessand individuals make sense of the digital world, in ameaningful way. Hong Kong’s Cathay Pacific airline, forexample, reportedly uses Small Data to anticipate thetype of alcohol First Class passengers are likely to order.

In many ways, Small Data is what data used to be.But it’s also more than that. In 2018, we’re in the veryheart of the digital era; data has changed as much aswe have. Examples of modern consumer-application-based Small Data include tracking energy usage in thehome, monitoring sleep cycles via an app, analysingeating habits with a Smartphone, etc.

In a learning setting, Small Data allows instructors tomonitor how a class of students reacts to certainmaterial, which particular topics students are engagedwith, or which topics students choose to skip. In a storesetting, a proprietor could analyse which items sell welland which don’t, which items see most store returns,and where problems may lie in the business. Notably,while Small Data can be collected directlythrough sensors or transactionmonitoring, it can also be producedthrough the correct processing of BigData, using compartmentalisationanalytical tools.

Martin Lindstrom, author of ‘SmallData: The Tiny Clues that Uncover HugeTrends,’ believes that Small Data explainsthe ‘why’ behind what Big Data reveals.In a conversation with Knowledge@Wharton (University of Pennsylvania),Lindstrom states that: “…if you take the top100 biggest innovations of our time,perhaps around 60 to 65 percent arereally based on Small Data. It’s everythingfrom Snapchat, which was basicallydiscovered by coincidence, to even thePost-It note.” He makes the point that BigData is all about analysing the past, “butit has nothing to do with the future. SmallData, which I define as seemingly

insignificant observations you identify inconsumers’ homes, is everything fromhow you place your shoes to how youhang your paintings.”

But what does this all have to do withspace?A good question. Small Data is set torevolutionize everything from theconsumer experience, learning andshopping, through to wild animalmigratory patterns and long-term seabed erosion. But, of course, Small Dataand Big Data come hand-in-hand – somemight believe that they’re in competition,but it could also be argued that they’reentirely complementary.

The space sector is intrinsically linkedwith both Big Data and Small Data.Communications satellites enablingglobal high-speed connectivity areabsolutely critical for transmitting asignificant amount of Big Data between

locations across the globe. Low Earth orbit (LEO) satelliteconstellations, designed to support IoT and M2Mapplications, meanwhile, will also support Big Datatransfers.

Furthermore, Earth observation satellites are alreadyproving invaluable in tracking everything from weatherpatterns, climate change, natural phenomenon such asvolcanoes, earthquakes, wildfire, etc. We’ve evenreported on satellites being utilised to track certain typesof endangered seals across oceans; with this data,researchers have started to piece together not only thehows and whats, but also the whys – Small Data in anutshell.

It’s clear that data and the connectivity supportingthat data is one of the biggest global growth enginesfor the aerospace sector. Indeed, according to NSR’s‘Big Data Via Satellite’ report, satellite Big Data will playa transformational role in adding value to the entireecosystem of satellite services. Satellite, in any orbit, beit GEO, MEO or LEO, plays an undeniably fundamentalrole in today’s data revolution.