ASL contributed to the Canadian Department of National Defence (DND) IDEaS program to address challenges in space-based intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (SB-ISR), focusing on detecting concealed human activity in remote regions.
The project developed methods to identify subtle landscape changes—such as soil disturbances and infrastructure development—using satellite imagery. Emphasis was placed on wide-area monitoring beyond routinely observed locations, enabling the detection of emerging activity in sparsely monitored environments.
Using automated time-series analysis and change detection, ASL built workflows to process large satellite datasets, flag anomalies, and support targeted follow-up with higher-resolution sensors.
Project outputs included:
ASL has collaborated with Defence Research and Development Canada (DRDC) for over a decade, supporting a range of research initiatives focused on the application of geospatial analytics and artificial intelligence to defence-related challenges. This long-standing partnership has included work in areas such as site monitoring, object detection, and change detection using remotely sensed data.
Through this collaboration, ASL has contributed to the development of advanced analytical tools that leverage state-of-the-art machine learning and computer vision techniques.
Services provided:
Key contributions include:
Changes at the Gachin uranium mine in 2010.
The Gachin Salt Plug is one of several salt domes along the strategic Strait of Hormuz in the Persian Gulf. The Gachin uranium mine, mill and processing complex is located near the centre of the plug. A series of studies for the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission and the International Atomic Energy Agency demonstrated the use of satellite imagery, together with advanced techniques in nuclear safeguards monitoring, to detect changes occurring at the mine and in the surrounding area. Repeat coverage and automated analyses of this type can provide ongoing monitoring and cuing, alerting analysts to changes occurring across a broad area and/or outside of their main area of interest.
Services provided:
