Satellites That Think for Themselves: How CATALYST Is Bringing Real-Time Image Processing to Orbit

For decades,satellites have had a simple job: take pictures, send them back to Earth, and let humans do the heavy lifting. The problem? That process can take hours,or even days, before imagery becomes usable. In fast-moving situations like wildfires, floods, or military operations, that delay can be the difference between preventing disaster and acting too late.

A Canadian geospatial technology company says it has found a way to change that equation entirely.

PCI Geomatics, operating under the name CATALYST, has unveiled what it calls an industry-first capability: satellites that process there own images while still in orbit, delivering map-accurate, analysis-ready data to customers in seconds rather than hours.

In other words, the satellite doesn’t just capture the image. It finishes the job before the data ever touches the ground.

Moving the bottleneck into space

Traditionally, satellites beam massive volumes of raw images down to ground stations. From there, teams of specialists correct distortions caused by terrain and camera angles, align colors, remove visual noise, and precisely geolocate every pixel before the imagery can be used.

CATALYST’s Edge Processing technology shifts that entire workflow into orbit.

Using software loaded directly onto satellite hardware, images are processed automatically moments after capture. Distortions are corrected, colors balanced across wavelengths, interference removed, and every pixel is mapped to its exact real-world location, all before transmission.

What gets sent back to Earth is no longer raw data, but a finished, ready-to-use product.

“Speed to insight is the defining challenge for modern Earth observation,” said June McAlarey, CEO of PCI Geomatics. “Data providers don’t need to trade quality for speed—we deliver both.”

Why speed really matters

The implications here are particularly significant for time-critical missions.

During natural disasters like wildfires or floods, emergency responders often rely on satellite imagery to assess damage, plan evacuations, and deploy resources. Waiting hours for processed data can slow decision-making when every minute counts.

Defense and security agencies face similar challenges, where inteligence must arrive quickly to remain relevant. And in maritime monitoring, delays can allow illegal fishing vessels or smugglers to pass through unnoticed.

By processing imagery in space, CATALYST says it can deliver analysis-ready data within minutes of capture, sometimes seconds. This dramatically shortens the time between observation and action.

Less data, more value

Processing images onboard goes beyond speeding things up; it also reduces costs.

As satellites transmit only finished imagery instead of enormous raw files, bandwidth requirements drop significantly. That allows operators to capture more images per orbit, reduce storage needs, and cutback on expensive ground infrastructure.

“Every second saved in processing translates to real operational and commercial value,” said Kevin Jones, Chief Product Officer at PCI Geomatics. “Filtering out unusable data before it consumes precious bandwidth represents a major efficiency gain for constellation operators.”

The system is also designed to work alongside onboard artificial intelligence. With enough computing power left available, satellites can automatically detect and flag points of interest; such as ships, vehicles, or environmental changes, before data is transmitted to Earth.

Built on decades of experience

While the concept may sound futuristic, CATALYST’s technology is built on more than 40 years of photogrammetric expertise. The company has processed imagery from over 70 aerial and satellite sensors, with more than 30,000 software licenses deployed across 150 countries.

That experience has now been “hyper-optimized for space,” allowing a full processing pipeline,from raw sensor data to map-accurate products, to run in orbit in seconds.

CATALYST Edge Processing is available now for integration into new satellite missions, with demonstration systems offered for evaluation.

As satellite constellations grow larger and demand for real-time insight increases, the idea of satellites that can think and decide before they transmit may soon become the new standard for Earth observation.