ICEYE, a global leader in satellite-powered disaster management solutions, has expanded its multi-peril change detection portfolio with the launch of an Earthquake with Fire Following capability, initially available in California.
By combining earthquake-triggered change detection with high-resolution fire damage analysis, ICEYE said insurers and reinsurers can gain a more comprehensive view of structural impacts.
“This supports faster claims processing, improved loss validation, and more informed event impact sizing in the wake of complex, multi-hazard events,” the firm noted.
The capability is underpinned by ICEYE’s continuous Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) pre-imaging across California, which ensures the most current baseline data for accurate post-event comparisons.
“When a major earthquake is detected, ICEYE activates its Rapid Impact Change Detection capability to map the full event perimeter within hours. From there, high-resolution, targeted fire damage assessments are conducted using advanced machine learning models trained specifically on destruction patterns,” ICEYE said.
The firm noted that these assessments are guided by broad-scale change detection results and ancillary datasets to pinpoint the highest-priority focus areas.
According to ICEYE, this will help insurers further validate where buildings were destroyed in the aftermath of the earthquake and potential fires that followed. ICEYE has developed this new capability, building on the same technology used in its Hurricane and Wildfire solutions.
“Outputs are delivered via a secure API, enabling streamlined access to geospatial insights and hazard assessments. In the future, these capabilities will also be available through ICEYE’s Solutions Suite application, enabling combined building-level impact layers for multi-peril analysis in an interactive, visual environment. By combining multi-source data, advanced SAR imaging, and targeted analysis, ICEYE’s Earthquake with Fire Following capability empowers the insurance industry to make faster, more confident decisions — improving both immediate disaster response and long-term portfolio resilience,” the firm concluded.
Rupert Bidwell, VP of Insurance Solutions at ICEYE, commented, “This new capability is designed to give insurers critical insight at speed and scale as the event evolves, at a time when every hour counts for their customers and wider society.”
In related news, earlier this year, ICEYE successfully launched and deployed six new SAR satellites into orbit, further expanding its constellation and capabilities.
ICEYE announced that the satellites launched were integrated via Exolaunch and formed part of the Transporter-14 rideshare mission with SpaceX from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California, USA.
All of the satellites on the Transporter-14 launch were reportedly 25 cm class collectors, the highest fidelity in the industry.
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