EcoGEM

EcoGEM develops cutting-edge Earth observation foundation models using Global Navigation Satellite System Reflectometry (GNSS-R), an innovative and low-cost technique that measures Earth’s surface and atmospheric conditions via reflected satellite signals. The project transforms massive volumes of GNSS-R data into actionable insights by integrating it with other datasets. It pioneers the first general-purpose GNSS-R foundation models and curated multimodal datasets to support climate science, hazard detection, and environmental monitoring. Unlike task-specific models, EcoGEM’s models adapt across applications such as soil moisture, vegetation water content, and ocean wind speed. Uniquely, EcoGEM emphasizes energy-efficient AI through model pruning, knowledge distillation, and dynamic architectures, enabling deployment on edge devices and small satellites. This collaborative project of GFZ and DLR advances sustainable AI and promotes novel and open access tools for Earth scientists, environmental policymakers, and global users.