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.

ASKTERRA offers transparent pricing based on the Cloud Data Unit (CDU) model, so you only pay for the resources you actually use. There are several subscription tiers, as well as a free trial to help you get started. You can review detailed pricing and CDU breakdowns on our Pricing Page.

• Free Trial: Get started at no cost with 500 CDUs to explore the platform.
• Tiered Packages: Purchase packages of CDUs according to your needs — from individual users to GIS teams.
• Real-time Usage Dashboard: Monitor your CDU usage at any time so you always know your balance and consumption.

For the most up-to-date details and examples of what different workflows cost, see our full pricing breakdown.

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.