ASKTERRA Help and FAQ

ASKTERRA is a web-based platform that leverages artificial intelligence and cloud geospatial technology to make satellite imagery and weather forecast analysis accessible to everyone. With ASKTERRA, you can:

• Detect and visualize land cover, land use, vegetation changes, and weather-related impacts worldwide from 1984 to the present.
• Forecast risk of tree blowdown and other environmental hazards—including weather-driven risks—up to 10 days into the future.
• Interact using a simple chat interface—no coding or GIS expertise required.
• Download results for use in your own mapping or analysis workflows.

ASKTERRA is built by Redcastle Resources and is designed for researchers, educators, land managers, and anyone interested in understanding our changing planet and its weather.

1. Sign Up or Log In: Create an account and choose a subscription plan, or log in to access all features.
2. Ask a Question: Use the chat box to type a question or request. For example:
   • “Show deforestation in Borneo between 2017 and 2024.”
   • “Map forecasted tree damage near Asheville, NC for next week.”
   • “Detect flooding in Porto Alegre, Brazil in May 2024.”
3. Explore Conversation History: Review your previous questions and ASKTERRA's responses in the chat panel to keep track of your analyses and revisit and expand upon past results.
4. Interact with the Map: Click on the map to select locations, view details, or refine your area of interest. You can zoom, pan, and use map tools to explore results. Double-click on the map to see the pixel values at that location for the layers in the map.
5. Turn Layers On and Off: Use the layer controls to toggle different map layers, such as satellite imagery, change detection results, or weather forecasts, to customize your view. Layer opacity can be adjusted for fine-tuning your view.
6. Download Results: Download your results as GeoTIFFs for GIS analysis, PNG images for presentations, or PDF reports for sharing and documentation.
7. Expand Maps: You can expand any map to see more detail and interact with the map in a separate tab.
8. Download or Share: Download GeoTIFFs, PNGs, or share conversations by clicking the share button.

ASKTERRA's mission is to make satellite imagery and weather risk analysis accessible through AI. ASKTERRA is designed for a wide range of users, including researchers, educators, policy makers, journalists, emergency responders, and anyone interested in environmental monitoring, earth observation, and weather damage risk forecasting. No coding or GIS experience is required. Sign up today to try ASKTERRA out. Sign up

You can ask ASKTERRA to detect changes such as deforestation, urban growth, flooding, wildfire impacts, and forecasted tree damage. You can specify locations, date ranges, and types of change you are interested in. Here are some example questions you can ask:

• Detect sand dune movement in the Sahara over the past 8 years
• Map forecasted tree damage from September 24-29 2024 near Asheville, NC
• Map change using a pre from 2023 and post 2024 Oct 1-15 near Asheville, NC
• Map forecasted tree damage over the next 3 days across Western Canada
• Show deforestation in Borneo between 2017 and 2024
• Show forest regrowth in Chernobyl exclusion zone
• Map glacier retreat in Greenland using from 1984-2024
• Show changes in river courses in the Brahmaputra delta
• Detect coastal erosion along the Louisiana shoreline since 2003
• Find new solar farms in the Mojave Desert since 2018

CDU stands for Cloud Data Unit, which is the usage credit system used by ASKTERRA to measure and manage your access to cloud-based satellite data processing and AI analysis. Each time you run an analysis, generate a map, or use AI-powered features, a certain number of CDUs are consumed based on the complexity and resources required for your request.

• 1 CDU represents a fixed amount of cloud compute and data processing power.
• CDUs are used for both satellite image processing (using Google Earth Engine) and AI chat/analysis (using large language models).
• Your current CDU balance is always visible in the navigation bar. If your balance runs low, you can purchase more CDUs or contact support for options.
• CDUs help ensure fair and sustainable access to powerful cloud resources for all users.

Tip: Simple questions and small areas use fewer CDUs, while large-scale or complex analyses may use more. You will notice that Earth Engine usage will account for most of your CDU usage. You can bring your own GEE account to use for Earth Engine operations and map queries if you prefer. This will avoid using CDUs for Earth Engine operations.

Welcome to ASKTERRA, where our goal is to provide a transparent and flexible pricing model that scales with your needs. Our unique approach is centered around the Cloud Data Unit (CDU), a proprietary metric designed to represent the total resources consumed by your activity on the ASKTERRA platform. As you explore your own usage needs within the application, our Cloud Data Packages offer flexible credit consumption strategies, from our tiered, discounted subscription plans to low commitment, one time data purchases. The cost of cloud services and AI technology can be difficult to track and understand, spurring the need to provide users with real-time monitoring and transparency tools to manage costs and maximize the value that ASKTERRA can offer.

In the table below you can review ASKTERRA packages available for purchase.

Pricing Structure for ASKTERRA (Cloud Data Unit Model)

This model offers a predictable base subscription with a precise, transparent usage-based component. Volume based plans make it easier to choose the right package for your teams needs and offer discounted rates on CDUs for heavy users without the need to track licenses or add seats among multiple users. Simply purchase and consume the credits your workflows and teams require:

Tier	Platform Fee (one time/monthly)	Included Cloud Data Units (CDUs)	Ideal For
New User Promotion	$50.00 (one time only)	2,500 CDUs	Ideal for new users curious to explore ASKTERRA and learn how it can augment their insights about the world.
Cloud Data Package Tier 1	$150.00/$99.00	5,000 CDUs	Ideal for exploring workflows and understanding how to use ASKTERRA. A great place to start leveraging GeoAI and increasing your remote sensing and GIS efficiency. .
Cloud Data Package Tier 2	$349.00/$249.00	15,000 CDUs	Ideal for GIS teams that consistently need Geospatial insights and perform production style processes.
Cloud Data Package Tier 3	$600.00/$499.00	30,000 CDUs	Ideal for larger teams and more complex workflows, many users and extensive data consumption.

Transparent Data Tracking Dashboard: Which provides users a real-time, in-app dashboard that shows:

• Large Language Model (LLM) credit consumption
• Google Earth Engine credit consumption
• Total combined CDU usage
• Per query consumption rates
• Download and Export tracking

The Dashboard interface allows users to better understand their ASKTERRA usage and consumption habits, allowing for efficient calibrations of workflows and prompting strategies.

Below we walk you through some common use cases and the associated CDU consumption:

Example 1: Simple Query with minimal exploration (Low Cost): Asking "Map landscape change in Asheville, NC resulting from Hurricane Helene"

• Below you can see the textual answer and associate map displaying the free base map and the NBR Change Output:

• I then zoomed into the confluence of the Swannanoa and French Broad Rivers to examine the flood damage. I turned on both the pre-event sentinel composite and the post-event sentinel composite to explore the data and understand the change. This is illustrated in the image below.

The total cost in CDUs for this type of simple and focused query was 52.636 CDUs, see figure below for the breakdown:

Example 2: Interactive Exploration (Medium Cost): Now lets stay in the same query but zoom out and explore some other areas near Asheville that could have also been impacted from Hurricane Helene.

• To save compute cost, I will turn off the pre and post imagery and just leave on the NBR difference layer and the base map will I explore the landscape, as illustrated below.

By exploring the Pisgah National forest to the Northeast of Asheville, we can see a lot of wind damage along the ridge lines and might want to take a closer look and view the pre and post composites again for another location.

During my exploration I zoomed into two separate locations to explore change on the landscape. In both instances I inspected the pre and post imagery composites to qualitatively check the logic. In one location I decided to create a PDF report to share with my colleagues summarizing the change in that location, see the report below.

By adding more exploration to my initial query I have increased the use of tile services by viewing the pre and post imagery in different locations and exploring a large area while displaying the NBR difference product. For this type or exploratory query you would expect to use ~ 130 CDUs, see figure below for the breakdown:

Now you might decide that you want to export the pre and post composites and the NBR difference layer as Geotiffs to do more analysis in your GIS.

Exporting the geotiffs will increase you total CDUs expended to ~175 CDUs, see figure below for the breakdown:

Example 3: Using the predictive capabilities of ASKTERRA (low/moderate cost): Alongside the core function of 2 date change detection, ASKTERRA leverages Google Deepminds Weather Next model (https://deepmind.google/science/weathernext/) to make weather forecasts 10 days into the future. ASKTERRA can display the 10 day forecasted Max Wind and Cumulative Precipitation globally. In addition we have created an associated “Gales Model” that predicts tree blowdown based on tree height and max windspeed.

Today is August 17, 2025. As we have an active hurricane in the Atlantic, I might be interested in its predicted path and associate max wind, cumulative precipitation and potential tree blowdown if I am managing assets on the east coast of the United States.

So with that in mind, lets ask, “Can you predict max wind speed in Florida for the next 10 days”.

• Below you can see a zoomed out look at Hurricane Erin’s predicted path through displaying the Max Wind Speed layer. Predictive layers can be  displayed as Max Wind Speed, Cumulative Precipitation and/or you can zoom into any land mass and explore potential for tree damage from wind.

• As you can see I zoomed out to get a more global perspective of Hurricane Erin’s max wind speed over the next 10 days. I also explored the cumulative precipitation at the same zoom level as seen in the graphic below:

For this type or forecasting query you would expect to use ~ 70 CDUs, see figure below for the breakdown:

In summary we hope that this provides you with all the information you need to choose the right ASKTERRA package that will support your GeoSpaital information needs. If you would like to discuss further or would like a live demo to explore ASKTERRA more before you decide please don’t hesitate to contact us at [email protected]

AskTerra's goal is to make some of the most powerful and commonly needed Google Earth Engine workflows accessible to everyone, but it is by no means complete. If you have a specific workflow or analysis in mind that isn't currently supported, please contact us or post to our Google Group! We'd love to hear your ideas—whether they belong in AskTerra or if RedCastle Resources can help you realize your goal in other ways.

ASKTERRA primarily uses Landsat (1984-2018) and Sentinel-2 (2015-present) satellite imagery, providing global coverage from 1984 to the within 1 or 2 days of the current date. The platform also incorporates weather data from Google Deem Mind's WeatherNext and risk forecast data for tree damage using the Gales model and WeatherNext. prediction.

Text responses typically take 5-30 seconds and map results are processed in real-time, appearing within several seconds. Image download and report generation can take longer, depending on the size of the area.

Yes! ASKTERRA allows you to download geoTiffs and pngs of the underlying data, PDF reports, and you the unerlying tile image services for use in your own GIS software.

ASKTERRA offers several paid subscription plans to meet your needs. We also provide free training instances on a request basis (contact us for details ).

Yes! If you have your own GEE account, you can use it for most Earth Engine operations performed by ASKTERRA. This allows you to leverage your own GEE quota and resources for the tile services and map query services provided by ASKTERRA. Please note that downloading GeoTIFFs, PNGs, and generating PDF reports will still use ASKTERRA's GEE account, but these actions typically represent a small portion of the total Earth Engine usage. For most interactive analysis and map generation, your own GEE account will be used if you connect it.

ASKTERRA is designed specifically for rapid, high-quality geospatial analysis and map generation—without requiring you to write or run code. Unlike coding assistants such as Copilot, Claude Code, Cursor, or Windsurf, which help you generate and execute code (often in Python or JavaScript), ASKTERRA provides a streamlined interface focused on delivering ready-to-use map outputs and analyses in seconds. This means you get results much faster and with less effort, but with less flexibility than writing custom code.

Our vision is that, as coding LLMs and geospatial tools continue to advance, the best of both worlds will merge—combining the flexibility of code with the speed and ease-of-use of ASKTERRA.

You can contact the ASKTERRA team at [email protected] or join our Google Group for help, feedback, and discussion.

Absolutely! ASKTERRA is ideal for educational and research purposes. If you are interested in collaboration or need special access for your institution, please contact us.

Yes! You can easily share your conversations with other ASKTERRA users. When you share a conversation, the recipient will be able to view the entire conversation, including all resulting maps. Theycan even continue the conversation on their own.

Please note: currently, ASKTERRA does not allow other users to edit your original conversation. Any follow-up questions they add will not be saved to your conversation history. We're excited to hear your ideas about how you would use a truly collaborative conversation platform—let us know what features you'd like to see!

You can find video tutorials on our YouTube channel. You can also contact us directly or chat with ourselves and other users on our Google Group.