Understanding The Macroscope Initiative And GeoML

How is it possible to harness high volumes of data on a planetary scale to discover spatial and temporal patterns that escape human perception? The convergence of technologies such as LIDAR and machine learning is allowing for the creation of macroscopes, which have many applications in monitoring and risk analysis for enterprises and governments. Microscopes have been around for centuries, and they are tools that allow individuals to visualize and research phenomena that are too small to be perceived by the human eye. Macroscopes can be thought of as carrying out the opposite function; they are systems that are designed to uncover spatial and temporal patterns that are too large or slow to be perceived by humans. In order to function, they require both the ability to gather planetary-scale information over specified periods of time, as well as the compute technologies that can deal with such data and provide interactive visualization.