An innovative Israeli-Polish technology can predict #earthquakes up to two weeks in advance by monitoring cosmic rays. Earthquakes are a very real fear in Israel, which is located on the Syrian-African rift. The aftermath of such earthquake can be devastating, as seen in the 2023 earthquake in Turkey. Seismic warning systems are designed to provide a brief alert, often just seconds before the earthquake. The chances of survival are nearly zero.
This is why this technology is so significant: The developers assure a heads-up of up to 14 days, providing ample time to get ready.
Who is behind it? IAI - Israel Aerospace Industries is a global giant, that contributed to the project a sensing capability through #SAR radar satellites. Astroteq.ai is a young Polish start-up that developed a cosmic ray detector. It seems that prior to an earthquake, alterations in the magnetic field can be detected by monitoring cosmic radiation.
The partnership originated within the "Astra" startup accelerator, a program conducted by IAI in collaboration with Starburst Aerospace.
Raanan Schlisselberg, Head of Visual Intelligence at the Elta Division of IAI says: “The ability of cosmic radiation to analyze earthquakes and the ability of satellites to analyze ground movements - each on its own is not good enough but the combination is what brings the solution.”
Itamar Zabari, CCO, CTO and Co-Founder of Astroteq, adds: "The results of our collaboration are expressed in about 9% improvement in the ability to predict earthquakes. Our goal is that in 12 months we will have 95% accuracy."
The primary potential customers include governments, as well as the insurance market, which eagerly seeks technologies capable of mitigating earthquake damage. Another sector is perhaps the military. Bloomberg News reported that the IDF employs ionization technology to detect tunnels in Gaza.
The head of the IAI Innovation Center, Lea Alon, says that one of the main goals in establishing the center was to locate advanced and disruptive technologies and accelerate their development from the concept stage to the presentation of an initial product (MVP). The innovation center operates within the office of the VP of Technologies, R&D and Innovation (CTO) at the IAI, Eytan Eshel. He says: "80% of our activity is exporting abroad and our customers only come to you if you have a technological and significant advantage. The result is that we are experiencing an unprecedented boom in the company's performance as a result od the big technological advantage".
Read the whole story (in Hebrew) in ynet
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