Frequently asked questions.
Questions about BASIN’s features, data, accuracy and how to get started.
FAQ
All questions
What is BASIN?
BASIN is MomentCube’s satellite AI service for early algal bloom response. It has two stages: wide-area screening (SaaS) that finds risky water bodies and intakes from satellite, weather and river data, and on-site verification that decides when to act from field measurements, sampling and CCTV.
Do we need to install equipment?
No. BASIN starts from satellites and public data and runs in a web browser, with nothing installed on site.
Which satellites and data does it use?
Free public satellites such as Sentinel-1 radar, Sentinel-2 optical and Landsat surface temperature, plus public water quality measurements, weather data and forecasts, and flow and release data.
Does it replace official algae alerts?
No. Official alerts are based on cyanobacteria cell counts from field sampling. BASIN is a screening and forecasting tool that shows where concentration will rise first and how it may change over the coming days.
What about cloudy days?
Optical satellites cannot read bloom concentration under cloud. BASIN keeps watching the water surface with radar and continues alerts from temperature, nutrients, sunlight, residence time and weather forecasts.
How far ahead does it look?
Early warning gives alert levels 3 to 7 days ahead every day. Spread paths cover D+1 to D+7, and the AI forecast looks 7, 14 and 30 days ahead for each grid cell.
How accurate is it?
Current performance comes from our own pilot water bodies, so we do not present it as official. In a pilot we plan to verify a chlorophyll-a mean absolute error of 10 µg/L or less, alert recall of 80% or more, a 3-day-ahead alert hit rate of 70% or more, and radar water detection accuracy of 90% or more.
How fast are results?
The first analysis of one water body takes 1 to 2 minutes. After that, results are recalculated automatically when new satellite scenes arrive.
Can it be used abroad?
Yes. Registering a water body is enough to apply the same approach to dams and drinking water sources abroad. Local measurements, if available, are used for automatic validation.
How do we buy it?
As subscriptions per water body or intake and as per-event analyses. We start with a paid pilot and move to a subscription once the results are confirmed.
Can it connect to our systems?
An API specification for feeding alerts and grid data into integrated water management or digital twin systems is agreed during the pilot.
Where is it being tested?
We run our own pilot monitoring on five water bodies in Korea (about 75 km²): Paldang Lake, Daecheong Lake, Soyang Lake, the Nakdong River (Mulgeum, Maeri) and Saemangeum Lake. These are not client deployments.
Work with us
Start with a satellite screening of your water.
We screen your reservoirs and intakes from public satellite data first, then compare the results with your own field measurements. No equipment needs to be installed.