• The image unveils Tokyo’s nighttime heat distribution with an unprecedented level of granularity, providing building-level temperature insights at a quality never before possible from space. 

• The thermal contrast between different city elements – buildings, parks, and waterways – provides deeper insights into urban heat distribution, supporting smarter planning and climate adaptation.
• The image captured by SkyBee-1, the first satellite in constellr’s new-generation HiVE constellation, marks a step-change in thermal intelligence for enhanced decision-making across industries. 

Freiburg, Germany, 17 th of March 2025 –

Constellr, a European leader in Earth Observation (EO), has released its ‘first light’ image from HiVE’s SkyBee-1 satellite, marking a milestone in high-precision thermal monitoring. Captured just weeks after the satellite’s launch, the image provides an unprecedented, high-resolution thermal map of Tokyo at night, demonstrating building-level temperature detail. 

SkyBee-1 carries a custom-developed thermal long-wave infrared instrument, featuring cryocooling technology; a first-of-its-kind deployment on a microsatellite platform. The integration of this advanced system added levels of technical sophistication, enhancing the satellite’s thermal capabilities and highlighting constellr’s marketleading expertise and rapid deployment – delivering first light in under three weeks. 

Taken from low-Earth orbit, the image provides a detailed thermal map of Tokyo at night, dividing the city into 30-by-30 metre grids. The high-resolution data showcases constellr’s ability to pinpoint heat distribution with unmatched precision, distinguishing effectively between buildings, industrial sites, water bodies, and green spaces. This granularity enables accurate identification of urban heat hotspots and the assessment of cooling interventions over time. With its expanding constellation, constellr offers continuous, high-frequency monitoring of global temperature patterns, supporting data-driven decision-making in urban planning and climate resilience. 

Today, constellr’s first satellite provides precise temperature measurements down to building-level, making it possible to track how specific assets contribute to urban heat or benefit from cooling initiatives. Previously, thermal data was too coarse to separate distinct heat sources, rendering it ineffective for targeted interventions. Now, constellr’s advanced resolution transforms urban planning by offering actionable insights at sub-weekly intervals, enabling optimisation of real estate development, green space design, and thermal comfort strategies. 

Figure 1: First light imagery over Tokyo at night from SkyBee-1, copyright: 

Constellr Early insights from the first light dataset highlight how different materials and structures influence urban temperatures. Water bodies act as thermal buffers, cooling their surroundings during the day while retaining heat at night. Industrial zones near the Sumida River, one of the four mega rivers that flow through central Tokyo, appear cooler at night due to heat-reflective materials and insulation, while solar panels, for instance, remain cool overnight but rapidly warm with sunlight. This granular data enables more precise urban planning, allowing for strategic placement of cooling infrastructure, green spaces, and energy-efficient materials to enhance climate resilience. 

Constellr’s technology contributes to a paradigm shift in urban planning through more granular than ever before evaluations of building thermal efficiency, optimisation of cooling infrastructure placement, prioritisation of resources to tackle heat waves and plan targeted green space development for cooling as well as identification of potential thermal refuge zones during extreme heat events. Research published by the International Energy Agency (IEA) in 2023 found that energy demand for building cooling accounts for around 10% of global electricity demand, and is set to more than double by 2050, straining power systems around the world, stressing the need for smart urban design. 

Global Relevance: Rethinking Urban Heat Islands and Climate Adaptation 

As heatwaves become more frequent and prolonged due to climate change, understanding how cities trap and distribute heat is essential for climate resilience and urban planning worldwide. Cities such as New York, Mumbai, São Paulo and London can already be up to ten degrees hotter than surrounding rural areas – and productivity losses from the urban heat island effect and global warming are expected to decrease real gross domestic product (GDP) by 1.4-1.7 percent for the median city by 2050[1] . Likewise, a recent study published in Nature Medicine in January 2025 found that elevated urban temperatures contribute to increased health risks and could lead to 2.3 million additional temperature-related deaths in European cities by 2099. High-frequency thermal data will provide policymakers, urban planners, and environmental agencies with the intelligence needed to develop more effective climate adaptation strategies. 

Constellr’s next satellite launch, set for later this year, will mark the start towards daily, real-time global temperature monitoring. This breakthrough will deliver critical insights across industries. Agriculture will gain a precision tool to track crop health, soil moisture and irrigation efficiency. Urban planning authorities will gain the ability to track heat island formation in real time and optimise cooling strategies. Infrastructure monitoring will reach new levels of precision and affordability, allowing governments and industries to detect early signs of structural wear, pollution events, and energy inefficiencies. For example, the cost of maintaining national rail infrastructure can reach on average tens of thousands of Euros per track kilometer per year. This could be significantly reduced with the improved thermal monitoring that constellr offers. 

As the HiVE constellation expands, constellr will deliver near-continuous temperature monitoring, providing essential insights for climate adaptation, urban resilience, and sustainable development worldwide and transforming thermal intelligence into a highly scalable industrial commodity. 

Dr Max Gulde, CEO of constellr, commented:

“This is such an important milestone for constellr. For the first time, we can pinpoint precise temperature variations from space, helping industries worldwide optimise resources, enhance climate resilience, and make data-driven decisions at an unprecedented scale. I’m so grateful for the massive efforts of our team and am thankful to our partners for their continued support.”

Peggy Fischer, Mission Manager of ESA Third Party Missions (TPMs) and Copernicus Contributing Missions (CCMs): “SkyBee-1’s first light over Tokyo at night marks an exciting milestone for thermal Earth observation. Capturing land surface temperature at this level of detail will be invaluable for monitoring urban heat, water stress, and climate resilience. This achievement demonstrates the potential of high-resolution thermal data to support a wide range of environmental and climate applications. At ESA and within the Copernicus Contributing Mission Team, we are excited to work with constellr and explore how their innovative data can enhance existing Earth observation capabilities and provide new insights for sustainable resource management.
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Giuseppe Borghi, Head of the ESA Φ-lab division commented: “Constellr’s first light is a key milestone, demonstrating the power of high-resolution thermal intelligence in Earth Observation. High-revisit and quality land surface temperature data is no longer a distant vision – it is now becoming a tangible reality, with direct implications for climate resilience, water management, and industrial efficiency, and preliminary results from Skybee-1 indicate a remarkable data quality. ESA’s role is to push the frontier of European space innovation, and constellr exemplifies the kind of creativity and expertise that can revolutionise decision-making across multiple sectors. From Tokyo’s industrial cold zones to the surprising warmth of its urban lakes at night, this first dataset reveals the intricate ways in which cities store and release heat. These insights highlight the role of both natural and built environments in shaping urban temperatures, paving the way for smarter, more sustainable resource management.” 

About Constellr

Constellr is a European leader in thermal data services, creating a real-time global thermal intelligence atlas that enables precise monitoring of our planet’s surface temperatures, essential for understanding global climate dynamics and providing insights into water usage, and factors influencing the carbon cycle. Our actionable data supports the early detection of trends and anomalies across urban zones, infrastructure, the natural environment and agriculture, to enhance living standards, tackle climate change, and safeguard global food security. We deliver critical temperature insights that drive sustainable development and climate resilience by harnessing high-precision Land Surface Temperature (LST) measurements captured from space. Founded in Freiburg, Germany, by a team of talented entrepreneurs, scientists and engineers, constellr launched its first thermal infrared sensor to the International Space Station in 2022. This is just the beginning. With SkyBee-1 operational and more satellites planned for launch, constellr is revolutionising thermal Earth observation. 

Source: Constellr