Satellite data, information, or knowledge? Critiquing how Arctic environmental NGOs derive meaning and power from imagery

Abstract

Through interviews and correspondence carried out with six Arctic environmental NGOs (ENGOs) in 2024, this article identifies how they derive meaning and power from satellite imagery. It applies the distinctions between data, information, and knowledge made by Boisot and Canals (2004) to satellite imagery, defining satellite data as that which contains information about the Earth, satellite information as that which can modify understandings of the Earth, and satellite knowledge as that which enables its producer to act and adapt to a changing planet. Arctic ENGOs are interested in accessing, analyzing, and sharing satellite imagery for purposes including tracking marine mammal migrations, mapping coastal inundations for Indigenous communities, pinpointing pollution in an increasingly off-limits Russia, and visualizing and communicating climate change. A limited number of Arctic ENGOs with geospatial skills are able to analyze satellite data, largely from public sources and occasionally from commercial sources, and turn it into information and knowledge. This capacity may enable them to inform regional governance and environmental management, yet at the same time it risks distancing them from the communities and ecologies for which they advocate unless they intentionally design locally-informed rather than data-driven research. Arctic ENGOs also serve as satellite information intermediaries, sharing imagery, charts, and other media they come across in scientific repositories and reports with wider audiences to influence public opinion. Although certain ENGO representatives contend that satellite imagery can reveal processes beyond the powers of human observation, including those of Arctic Indigenous Peoples, they note limitations to the data, especially due to the polar night and marine turbidity, and barriers to access, including cost and being outside academic institutions. Ultimately, the power of satellite imagery when harnessed by NGOs depends on whether they are wielding it as data, information, or knowledge.