Ahmedabad-based space tech startup SatLeo Labs is currently testing street-level heat intelligence in Karnataka, aiming to provide thermal maps for daily decision-making. The company is developing thermal mapping technology using satellite and drone data to offer hyper-local temperature insights. This innovation seeks to optimize urban planning, manage outdoor labor conditions, and detect environmental hazards like methane leaks, ultimately making cities cooler and safer for residents and workers.
The core idea revolves around leveraging space-borne temperature data to aid in everyday choices. For instance, an app could guide a courier or gig worker along the coolest route on a hot day, rather than just the shortest one. SatLeo Labs envisions a broad market in outdoor labor management. Average city temperatures often don't reflect the actual conditions faced by gig workers or construction personnel. With street-level thermal maps, insurers could validate claims related to heat exposure, employers could reroute or reschedule tasks during heat spikes, and health departments could strategically position cooling stations and medicines.
In Tumakuru, located 76km from Bengaluru, SatLeo is conducting a pilot project. This involves using drone-mounted thermal sensors combined with satellite-derived layers to identify methane leaks and track heat accumulation across a 40-acre solid-waste dump. According to SatLeo, Tumakuru is progressing towards a cleaner and healthier future.
SatLeo Labs was founded in 2023 by Ranendu Ghosh, Shravan Bhati, and Urmil Bakhai. The company is incubated in IN-SPACe. SatLeo is planning a constellation of microsatellites equipped with thermal imaging payloads. The satellites will capture temperature variations across mid- and long-wave infrared bands, complemented by visible imagery, to support various applications including agriculture, climate monitoring, disaster management, and urban planning. The company's experimental Tapas-1 mission is scheduled for Q1 2026, with a commercial rollout anticipated later that year. SatLeo aims to combine medium-wave and long-wave infrared imaging with 2.5-metre visible imagery and onboard edge computing. The goal is to provide sub-10-metre thermal maps, twice-daily updates, and real-time anomaly detection, offering cities and enterprises processed insights instead of raw data.
One of SatLeo's products, the "Thermal Comfort API", is a layer that municipalities or platforms can integrate into their systems to assess heat stress at street level. SatLeo's satellites will operate in Low Earth Orbit (LEO). The system is designed to provide high-frequency observations, with data acquisitions expected twice per day. The satellites are designed to capture thermal data with an accuracy of approximately one Kelvin and approximately 10 m spatial resolution. In the visible range, they will achieve a spatial resolution of 10 cm.
SatLeo Labs raised $3.3 million in pre-seed funding to support satellite hardware development, onboard AI and edge computing systems deployment, and launch readiness. The company's technology transforms temperature into real-world solutions for various sectors, including agriculture, defense, urban planning, and climate science. The satellites can detect temperature variations with an accuracy of about one Kelvin and also support edge computing for real-time data processing onboard.
