Off-Nadir Delta
Quick answer — what Off-Nadir Delta is

Off-Nadir Delta is a real-time event and geospatial intelligence platform that decides what is worth observing. Disasters, conflict, environmental change, and infrastructure failures unfold worldwide every day, but the signals are scattered across news, open data, and satellite imagery — and reading them takes expertise and time. Off-Nadir Delta combines an AI analyst, maps, satellite data, and open sources to explore, visualize, and prioritize geographic events, and to answer the questions that precede any imagery spend: can a satellite settle this, is free Sentinel-class data enough or does it need commercial tasking, and when can the place next be imaged. Factual claims link to their sources, judgments are labelled as judgments rather than facts, and each brief reports its own citation coverage — naming any claim that lacks a source — instead of producing an assessment anyway. There are three ways to look, distinguished by scope: Delta Watchfloor (everywhere, today — today's prioritized picture of global risk, so you know where to look now), Delta Map (one place, right now — verify an event from space with Sentinel-1 C-band SAR, NISAR L-band SAR, Sentinel-2 optical, VIIRS nighttime lights, and NASA FIRMS active fires, no GIS software required), and Delta Monitor (one place, over time — fix an area, pick what to count such as ships alongside a berth, burned area or water extent, and every new Sentinel-1 or Sentinel-2 acquisition over it is measured automatically, with unusual readings flagged against the history). And two ways to be told: Delta Agent (an AI analyst that explains what happened and why it matters, and recommends which satellite sensor and area to image next) and Delta Reports (a written daily assessment with Key Judgments, calibrated confidence, and an outlook). Built for OSINT, geopolitical-risk, and satellite-intelligence analysts, and for developers integrating live signals and briefs through the API and MCP. Also applicable to emergency management, media, enterprise-risk, and research workflows. No intelligence background required. Free tier available. Built for workflows including geopolitical & supply-chain risk intelligence, defense and maritime domain awareness, disaster response, environmental and crop monitoring, urban planning, nighttime-lights analysis, research and education, and programmatic access for developers and AI agents (REST API + MCP).

Use Cases

Example workflows for emergency management, government, journalism, enterprise risk, research, and independent analysis — showing how Off-Nadir Delta's four surfaces (the Watchfloor, Delta Agent, the Map, and Daily Reports) turn scattered signals into prioritized real-time event and geospatial intelligence you can act on.

Geopolitical & Supply-Chain Risk

How do risk teams track world events with satellites?

By pairing a live event feed with satellite follow-up. The Watchfloor plots geolocated security and geopolitical events, distilled from global news media, on a daily world dashboard; Delta Agent turns any question into a sourced, geolocated brief; and the Daily Report delivers Key Judgments with calibrated confidence — so a headline becomes a checkable location you can collect fresh imagery over.

How Off-Nadir Delta helps

  • Scan the Watchfloor — no login required — to see where events are clustering.
  • Ask Delta Agent for a cited brief on a port, corridor, or facility you depend on.
  • Read the Daily Report: Key Judgments, an outlook, and collection priorities.
  • Cue continuous monitoring on the exact locations that matter — a tip-and-cue workflow from news to imagery collection.

Defense & Maritime Domain Awareness

How does maritime domain awareness work from space?

Sentinel-1 radar images the ocean day and night, through cloud — so ports, chokepoints, and anchorages can be watched on every pass. Off-Nadir Delta runs SAR ship detection on any scene to reveal vessels, including ones that are not broadcasting AIS, and continuous monitoring flags unusual activity in an area of interest.

How Off-Nadir Delta helps

Disaster Response & Assessment

How is satellite imagery used in disaster response?

Radar first, optical second. Sentinel-1 SAR sees through cloud and smoke, so flood extent can be mapped while the storm is still overhead; NASA FIRMS detects active fires at 375 m resolution, updated several times a day; and before/after difference analysis turns two acquisitions into a damage map for responders and insurers.

How Off-Nadir Delta helps

Environmental Monitoring

How do you monitor environmental change with free satellite data?

Sentinel-2 has imaged the world's land surface at 10 m resolution since 2015 — with a roughly five-day revisit once the two-satellite constellation was complete — free and open. That archive makes deforestation, coastal change, and water stress measurable: compute vegetation and water indices such as NDVI and NDWI, compare any two dates with difference analysis, and set up continuous monitoring that alerts you when an area departs from its normal pattern.

How Off-Nadir Delta helps

Agriculture & Crop Monitoring

How does satellite crop monitoring work?

Sentinel-2's 10 m resolution resolves individual fields, and its roughly 5-day revisit builds a season-long time series. Vegetation indices like NDVI make crop vigor measurable from space, so stress, irrigation problems, and slow emergence show up before they are obvious on the ground — without driving to every field.

How Off-Nadir Delta helps

Urban Planning & Development

How is urban growth monitored from space?

By comparing acquisitions across years. Multi-date Sentinel-2 imagery documents expansion, new construction, and green-space loss objectively; difference analysis highlights exactly which pixels changed; and VIIRS nighttime lights add an activity dimension — where electrification and economic activity are growing after dark.

How Off-Nadir Delta helps

  • Compare multi-year imagery and export objective evidence for planning decisions.
  • Map exactly what changed with pixel-level change detection.
  • Watch nighttime lights as a proxy for activity and electrification.

Nighttime Lights Analysis

What can nighttime lights data reveal?

NASA's Black Marble product turns VIIRS Day-Night Band observations into a daily, cloud-corrected picture of the Earth at night. Lighting is a strong proxy for human activity: analysts use it to spot power outages after storms or strikes, track electrification, and watch economic activity where ground data is scarce.

How Off-Nadir Delta helps

Research & Education

Can students and researchers use satellite data without GIS software?

Yes — everything runs in the browser, with a free tier and nothing to install. Search and visualize Sentinel-1, Sentinel-2, NISAR, and VIIRS scenes; open your own GeoTIFFs in a client-side viewer that never uploads your file; and lean on the guide and glossary to learn remote-sensing concepts as you go.

How Off-Nadir Delta helps

Developers & AI Agents

Can software and AI agents use Off-Nadir Delta programmatically?

Yes. The Event Intelligence API exposes event signals, the daily brief, and analyst endpoints over REST with OpenAPI documentation, and the MCP server gives AI agents the same capabilities as tools — so an agent can ask what is happening in the world, request an assessment, and cite the sources.

How Off-Nadir Delta helps

Frequently Asked Questions

Which parts of Off-Nadir Delta are free to use without an account?
The Watchfloor dashboard (showing the most recent day of signals), the daily Global Situation Brief and its per-day archive, the live active-fire map, the global NDVI browse map, and the in-browser GeoTIFF viewer all work without logging in. Signing in adds the Map workbench, Delta Agent questions, deeper Watchfloor history, and the Daily Report viewer — how far back you can browse and which analysis tools are available depend on your plan, with usage metered by a token allowance.
Does satellite monitoring work at night or under cloud?
Yes. Sentinel-1 is a synthetic aperture radar (SAR): it carries its own illumination and images through cloud, smoke, and darkness. VIIRS complements it at night with daily nighttime-lights observations. Optical Sentinel-2 needs daylight and clear skies, so analysts combine the three depending on the question being asked.
Can I monitor an area continuously and get alerted?
Yes. Draw an area of interest and Off-Nadir Delta tracks it across successive acquisitions, building a time series and automatically flagging statistically unusual changes. It pairs naturally with the event feed: when a signal appears somewhere you care about, you can cue monitoring on that exact location — a tip-and-cue workflow.
Do I need GIS experience to use these tools?
No. Everything runs in a web browser with no installation, and the interface is designed for analysts and beginners rather than GIS specialists. The getting-started guide walks through each workflow step by step, and the glossary defines the remote-sensing and intelligence terminology used across the platform.
Can my scripts or AI agents access the intelligence?
Yes. A documented REST API exposes event signals, the daily brief, and analyst endpoints, with an OpenAPI specification for code generation. An MCP (Model Context Protocol) server exposes the same capabilities as tools, so AI agents can gain awareness of world events and request assessments programmatically.

See today's picture first

Open the Watchfloor — no login needed — to see where events are clustering, or create a free account to analyze imagery on the Map.

From headline to satellite evidence

One connected intelligence workflow across four surfaces — free to start, no GIS software or remote-sensing background required.