How Planet’s Distinctive Approach to Global Monitoring Sets a New Standard for Defense Analysts

Learn how broad area management with Planet helps defense analysts continually monitor change across every region of interest.

Global military spending swelled to $2.24 trillion in 2023, according to analysis by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI). “The unprecedented rise in military spending is a direct response to the global deterioration in peace and security,” says Nan Tian, Senior Researcher at SIPRI, in the report.

Defense and intelligence (D&I) communities face an urgent need to remain hyper-vigilant amid intensifying global tensions. At the same time, public and private entities within the D&I sector must collaborate more closely than ever to ensure accountability worldwide. In an era where global monitoring is paramount, observation and data sharing may be the best deterrence.

Near-daily satellite data and analytics from Planet help D&I agencies detect and monitor relevant changes at a global scale. This practice — known as broad area management — helps defense analysts identify known and unknown threats across any area of interest to act quickly, build resilience, and minimize risk.

The Importance of Global Monitoring Services for Defense

National and global resilience depend on a continuous awareness of evolving threats, but it’s increasingly difficult to keep a close eye on activity across every region of interest.  

One major area of concern for global defense analysts is visibility in remote regions where there are military movements and operations. High-cadence satellite imaging offers a solution for monitoring both existing and potential installations. (Read our e-book on global vigilance for more details on this topic.)

Another challenge is monitoring Earth’s vast waterways. About 71% of the Earth’s surface is covered with water. And because ships participating in nefarious activities have been known to spoof their Automatic Identification System (AIS) transponder — allowing them to hide their actual location — it is extremely difficult to know where to look to detect unexpected and potentially illicit activity. 

This is where broad area management with Planet sets a new standard for global monitoring services in defense and intelligence: we combine high-frequency imagery, high-resolution tasking, analysis-ready data, and advanced analytics to fill intelligence gaps and minimize risk.

Planet’s Approach to Broad Area Management

Broad area management is the practice of monitoring, measuring, and reporting changes across large, dispersed geographic areas using Earth observation data. 

By leveraging Planet data and analytics, broad area management can help detect change, validate threats, and accelerate responses. 

Planet’s approach to broad area management includes four distinct capabilities that support global monitoring. It allows organizations to:

• Look broader and monitor vast areas every day with daily satellite imagery.
  
  
• Look back and identify change over time.
  
  
• Look closer with high-resolution tasking imagery.
  
  
• Look deeper with analytics-ready derived data.
  

These capabilities draw from the suite of Planet products. PlanetScope^® Monitoring provides a near-daily scan of Earth’s entire landmass, giving defense analysts a broad and continuous view of change.

If a more detailed view of a specific area of interest is needed, high-resolution Planet Tasking can be used as part of a tip and cue workflow to improve situational awareness.

And when these two capabilities are used with the Planet Archive, which includes proprietary datasets back to 2009 and public datasets back to 1972, analysts can look back and establish baselines to identify historical trends.

Finally, analysts can use Planet Analytic Feeds to automatically detect roads, buildings, and vessels to identify potential threats across land and waterways.

The Benefits of Broad Area Management

Planet’s unique combination of daily monitoring, hi-res imagery, analysis-ready data, and analytics offers governments and intelligence organizations a range of valuable benefits, including:

• Better visibility into changes over vast land areas: Improve situational awareness in any area of interest, including remote areas and high-conflict zones.
  
  
• Real-time monitoring and alerting of critical areas: Leverage better indications and warnings to enhance effectiveness and agility in complex environments.
  
  
• Faster issue discovery and decision-making: Accelerate response time to illegal activity, conflicts, humanitarian crises, and natural disasters.
  

Broad area management with Planet enhances defense decision-making with detailed, actionable insights that support deterrence capabilities. Our fleet of hundreds of satellites works to capture an image of the entire Earth’s landmass nearly every day.

High-frequency imagery, analysis-ready data, and analytics from Planet help D&I analysts make more informed and timely decisions in an increasingly volatile world. Analysts use this data to solve complex challenges with precision and speed.

PSAI: Anticipating and Tracking Attacks on Ukraine

Planet partner, PSAI, leverages advanced artificial intelligence (AI) to reshape how governments, organizations, and industries interpret complex data.

PSAI used its SPOTLIGHT monitoring solution, powered by Planet data, to identify unusual activity in Russian industrial and military complexes ahead of the invasion of Ukraine. They established a baseline for normal levels of activity and leveraged AI to confirm when traffic at ports and other industrial areas increased.

Since the war began, PSAI has collaborated with the U.S. State Department’s Conflict Observatory to track the destruction of more than 700,000 buildings in Ukraine. International response efforts rely on this data to understand the situation on the ground.

“We could not do what we do without Planet, specifically PlanetScope data,” says Michael Kelly, Director of Operations at PSAI. “This allows us to monitor for daily change, and no other provider can provide that. Planet excels in this area.” Read more about PSAI and Planet.

Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty: Tracking and Reporting Crimes in Wartime

Journalists in Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty’s (RFE/RL) Schemes investigative unit count on Planet satellite imagery for timely and accurate war reporting. 

In the Ukraine conflict, RFE uses Planet data to show the movement of aircraft, ships, and military equipment to draw international attention to the scale of the war.

One use case has been confirming mass burial sites around the country. When a Ukrainian resident reports a mass burial site, the Schemes team uses Planet imagery to make visual confirmation within hours and follows up with in-depth reporting. 

“Planet Labs satellite imagery has allowed our team to investigate crimes even in areas that are currently unreachable,” said Kyrylo Ovsianyi, investigative journalist at RFE/RL.  Learn more about Radio Free Europe and Planet.

Broad Area Management With Planet

Intelligence gaps are among the biggest challenges for defense analysts today. Building resilience requires bridging these gaps with reliable and high-frequency global monitoring.

Planet’s approach to broad area management provides defense analysts with comprehensive images of Earth’s landmass and waterways, enhancing worldwide visibility and vigilance. 

Our commitment to delivering deep insights and actionable intelligence positions Planet at the forefront of global monitoring.

If your D&I organization is seeking to improve its global monitoring capabilities, read our Enhancing Global Intelligence Outcomes white paper for more examples of how Planet helps governments worldwide build resilience.

Or, get in touch to discover how Planet can support your mission.