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Planet Labs PBC (Planet) distributes optical to near-infrared data acquired by the Planet small satellite constellations: PlanetScope, RapidEye, and SkySat.

The PlanetScope constellation of Dove satellites can image Earth’s entire land surface every day with a resolution of 3 m/pixel. Dove constellation satellite sensors have ongoing new generations that have additional band and larger square kilometers per individual image captured.

RapidEye is a retired constellation of five satellites operational from 2009 to 2020. The constellation captured more than 660,000 images of Earth’s total landmass. RapidEye image resolution is approximately 5 m/pixel.

SkySat satellites can revisit any location on Earth up to 10 times a day, obtaining 50 cm/pixel high-resolution imagery. CSDA has acquired a limited set of SkySat data.

Planet was one of the companies selected for evaluation in the original CSDA Pilot.

Authorized Data Use and Users
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Photo of Planet's Planetscope satellite.
A PlanetScope satellite. Credit: Image courtesy of Planet.

NASA-purchased Planet data are available to U.S. Federal civil agencies, including the National Science Foundation, and their contractors, subcontractors, partners, and grantee supporting entities for scientific use.

Approved scientists can use Planet data for research, experiments, evaluation, and development—including basic and applied research—that may lead to journal publications, licensed user-derived data products, white papers and maps for use by the broader scientific community, or to support logistical planning of future scientific research experiments such as field campaigns.

Planet data may not be used operationally for non-scientific logistical planning, response efforts outside U.S. Government agency applied science missions, management of human resources, remote monitoring (i.e., construction, facility monitoring, etc.), enforcing compliance of regulations, and law enforcement and investigations.

End User License Agreement

Planet Expanded EULA

Obtaining Data

Requesting PlanetScope and RapidEye data:

  • Contact CSDA and provide a name, email address, and other pertinent information (grant number, contract number, etc.) for data access approval
  • CSDA will verify the request, notify Planet, and initiate the creation of a user account
  • Once an account is approved and created, the user will receive notification and may then search and browse imagery using the Planet Explorer data discovery tool and place a data request order
  • A data download URL will be sent to the user via email or the user can download the data directly from the Planet API

Each PlanetScope and RapidEye user will be allocated a 5 million km2 quota. PlanetScope data will only be available 30 days after acquisition by the satellite constellation. However, exceptions to both conditions can be made based on additional justifications.

Accessing SkySat data:

  • Contact CSDA and provide a name, email address, and other pertinent information (grant number, contract number, etc.) for data access approval
  • Search the CSDA Smallsat Data Explorer (SDX; note: An Earthdata Login is required for access)
  • Review discovered data and download direct from the SDX or using the Bulk Download Tool
Copyright

Data products and derivatives must contain copyright markings as specified below, where YYYY is the year of the image acquisition.

  • For data products: “© Planet Labs PBC YYYY. All rights reserved.”
  • For derivatives: “Includes copyrighted material of Planet Labs PBC. All rights reserved.”
  • A joint copyright notice may be used as appropriate

Authorized users should send Planet a courtesy copy of any publications that include Planet data.

CSDA Acknowledgment

To help us identify your publications, we request that when you publish using these data, please include the following acknowledgment:

"This work utilized data made available through the NASA Commercial Smallsat Data Acquisition (CSDA) Program."

Planet Commercial Data
PlanetScope/Dove Satellite Constellation and Sensor Characteristics
Mission Characteristics International Space Station Orbit
Orbit Altitude (reference) 400 km (51.6° inclination)
Max/Min Latitude Coverage +/- 52° (depending on season)
Equator Crossing Time Variable
Sensor Type Three-band frame Imager or four-band frame Imager with a split-frame NIR filter
Spectral Bands Blue: 455-515 nm
Green: 500-590 nm
Red: 590-670 nm
NIR: 780-860 nm
Ground Sample Distance (nadir) 3.0 m (approximate)
Frame Size 20 km x 12 km (approximate)
Maximum Image Strip per Orbit 8,100 km2
Revisit Time Variable
Image Capture Capacity Variable
Camera Dynamic Range 12-bit
PlanetScope/Dove in Sun-Synchronus Orbit
Mission Characteristics Dove Classic (PS2) Dove-R (PS2.SD) SuperDove (PSB.SD)
Orbit Altitude (reference) 450–580 km
Inclination ~98°
Max/Min Latitude Coverage ±81.5° (depending on season)
Equator Crossing Time 9:30 to 11:30 a.m. (local solar time)
Sensor Type Three-band frame Imager or four-band frame Imager with a split-frame NIR filter Four-band frame imager
with butcher-block filter
Eight-band frame imager
with butcher-block filter
Spectral Bands Blue: 455–515 nm
Green: 500–590 nm
Red: 590–670 nm
NIR: 780–860 nm
Blue: 464–517 nm
Green: 547–585 nm
Red: 650–682 nm
NIR: 846–888 nm
Coastal Blue: 431–452 nm
Blue: 465–515 nm
Green I: 513–549 nm
Green II: 547–583 nm
Yellow: 600–620 nm
Red: 650–680 nm
Red-Edge: 697–713 nm
NIR: 845–885 nm
Ground Sample Distance (nadir) 3.7 m (approximate)
Frame Size 24 km x 8 km (approximate) 24 km x 16 km (approximate) 32.5 km x 19.6 km (approximate)
Maximum Image Strip per Orbit 20,000 km2
Revisit Time Near-daily at nadir
Image Capture Capacity ~350 million km2/day
Camera Dynamic Range 12-bit
RapidEye Satellite Constellation and Sensor Characteristics
Mission Characteristics Information
Number of Satellites 1
Orbit Altitude 630 km in Sun-Synchronous Orbit
Equator Crossing Time 11:00 a.m., local solar time (approximate)
Sensor Type Multispectral push broom
Spectral Bands Blue: 440–510 nm
Green: 520–590 nm
Red: 630–685 nm
Red Edge: 690–730 nm
NIR: 760–850 nm
Ground Sampling Distance (nadir) 6.5 m
Swath Width 77 km
Maximum Image Strip per Orbit Up to 1,500 km of image data per orbit
Revisit Time Daily (off-nadir)/5.5 days (at nadir)
Image Capture Capacity > 6 million km2/day
Camera Dynamic Range 12-bit
SkySat Satellite Constellation and Sensor Characteristics
Attribute Value
Mass 110 kg
Dimensions 60 x 60 x 95 cm
Total DeltaV 180 m/s
Onboard Storage 360 GB + 360 GB cold spare storage
RF Communication X-band downlink (payload): variable, up to 580 Mbit/s
X-band downlink (telemetry): 64 Kbit/s
S-band uplink (command): 32 Kbit/s
Design Life ~6 years
Geolocation Knowledge 30 m CE90 in a 500 km altitude orbit
Ground Sample Distance [SkySat-1, SkySat-2]
Panchromatic: 0.86 m
Multispectral: 10 m
[SkySat-3 – SkySat-13]
Panchromatic: 0.72 m
Multispectral: 1.0 m 2.3 targets (6.6 x 10 km) per minute
Revisit (per satellite) 4-5 days
*Reference altitude 500 km
Equatorial Crossing Time (UTC) 10:30: Current C-Gen satellites
13:00: SkySat-1 and SkySat-2
13:00: Block-2 C-Gen satellites
Image Configurations Multispectral Sensor (Blue, Green, Red, NIR)
Panchromatic Sensor
Product Framing SkySat Satellites have three cameras per satellite that capture
overlapping strips. Each of these strips contains overlapping scenes.
One scene is approximately 2560 x 1080 pixels
Sensor Type CMOS Frame Camera with Panchromatic and Multispectral halves
Spectral Bands Blue: 450–515 nm
Green: 515–595 nm
Red: 605–695 nm
NIR: 740–900 nm
Pan: 450–900 nm

Approved users have access to all PlanetScope and RapidEye data, and a limited set of SkySat data.

Note that Planet basemap products are not available through the CSDA program.

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