Kazushi Motomura, Ph.D.
Remote sensing specialist · Founder of Off-Nadir Lab
Kazushi Motomura is a remote sensing specialist with over 10 years of experience in satellite data processing and AI. He founded Off-Nadir Lab, holds a Ph.D. in Informatics from Yokohama National University (2026) and a Master's degree from the Department of Earth System Science and Technology in Kyushu University's Interdisciplinary Graduate School of Engineering Sciences, where his research was in satellite oceanography, and co-authored the "Object Detection" and "Super-Resolution" entries in the Remote Sensing Encyclopedia (Remote Sensing Society of Japan). He writes the Off-Nadir Delta blog on satellite imagery and event intelligence.
Education
Ph.D. in Informatics, Yokohama National University (2026). Master's in Earth System Science and Technology, Kyushu University; research in satellite oceanography.
Experience
10+ years in satellite data processing and AI. Founder of Off-Nadir Lab.
Publication
Co-author, Remote Sensing Encyclopedia (Remote Sensing Society of Japan).
Recent Articles
Can Satellites See at Night? Optical, Thermal and Radar
Can satellites see at night? Depends on the sensor: cameras need sunlight, VIIRS sees lights and moonlit clouds, thermal sees heat, radar sees in the dark.
Can Satellites See People, Faces or License Plates?
Can satellites see people, faces or license plates? 30 cm commercial pixels show a person as a dot and cannot read a plate. The physics, the specs, the limits.
Can Satellites See Underground? Radar, InSAR and Gravity
Can satellites see underground? Only a little: radar reaches metres into dry sand, InSAR sees ground move above mines and tunnels, gravity sees groundwater.
GEOINT vs GIS: What Is Geospatial Intelligence, Exactly?
GEOINT vs GIS: legal definition of geospatial intelligence (10 U.S.C. § 467), NGA, USGS and Esri quoted, a comparison table, and GEOINT on free imagery.
Geospatial Intelligence Platforms Compared (2026)
Geospatial intelligence platforms compared from official pages: Vantor, Planet, BlackSky, Airbus, ArcGIS, Earth Engine, QGIS, Copernicus and Off-Nadir Delta.
How Often Do Satellites Take Pictures of Earth?
How often satellites image a place: weather satellites every 10 minutes, VIIRS twice a day, Sentinel-2 every 5 days, Landsat 8, and why map apps are older.
Ship-to-Ship Transfer Detection with Satellite Imagery
How to find ship-to-ship (STS) transfers and bunkering at sea on satellite imagery: what Sentinel-1 radar and optical show, a workflow, and the limits.
What Is AIS Ship Tracking, and What If Ships Go Dark?
What AIS ship tracking is: the SOLAS carriage rule, what each message carries, shore vs satellite reception, why tracks have gaps, how radar finds dark ships.
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