Recently, USCB and privately owned Terra Image USA expanded the size and scope of their year-old research partnership involving commercial satellite images of the United States and Canada.

Using a UCSB online, searchable catalogue, Terra offers high-resolution images from Earth observation satellites, called SPOT, to U.S. universities in a subscription-only service. SPOT satellite images with a retail value of more than $100 million, Terra estimates, have been delivered to UCSB.

These images, which previously cost thousands a digital scene, have had their cost cut by nearly 90 percent.