Explained simply · satellite embeddings

A satellite embedding is a place, written as 64 numbers.

A patch of forest, seen from space
The same patch, as 64 numbers

First · look

A satellite photographs the same patch of land all year.

Then · squeeze

A computer squeezes that whole year into one short list.

Nobody tells it what a field is. It learned from pictures of the whole planet.

Try it · every place gets a pattern

Different places make different patterns.

The trick · alike looks alike

Places that look alike get lists that look alike.

Zoom out · Bolivia, 2017

Give every patch of a country its list, paint it, and the map draws itself.

Map of Bolivia coloured from satellite embeddings: blue across the western highlands, yellow and violet across the northern Amazon, pink and red across the eastern plains.
  • BlueHigh, dry Andes and the Altiplano
  • YellowThick Amazon forest in the north
  • VioletWet grasslands and river plains
  • Pink and redDry eastern plains toward the Chaco