Satellites turn “concrete”: Tracking cement with satellite data and neural networks
用卫星数据与神经网络追踪水泥生产
This paper exploits daily infrared images taken from satellites to track economic activity in advanced and emerging countries. We first develop a framework to read, clean, and exploit satellite images. Our algorithm uses the laws of physics (Planck's law) and machine learning to detect the heat produced by cement plants in activity. This allows us to monitor in real-time whether a cement plant is working. Using this on around 1,000 plants, we construct a satellite-based…