The proliferation of small satellites may make it easier to track near-Earth objects—asteroids and other potentially hazardous objects that could impact our Planet. In collaboration with Planet, Chengxing Zhai and team utilized SkySat-3 to demonstrate imaging of the main belt asteroid, 889 Erynia, and near-Earth oject 1998YP11. From January through April of 2017, SkySat-3 […]
Shoreline geomorphology is the result of natural forces including tidal action and storm activity, as well as anthropogenic changes to coastal infrastructure that can alter shoreline evolution and stability. High temporal- and spatial-resolution imagery can increase our understanding of the mechanisms that lead to these changes, and determine the influence of human […]
In the midst of a revolution Earth Observation, due to increasingly diverse and temporally dense data feeds enabled by cubesats and other sensors, there is a need to be interoperable across sensors. In the journal Remote Sensing of Environment, Rasmus Houborg and Matt McCabe present the Cubesat-enabled Spatio-Temporal Enhancement Method (CESTEM), which […]
Seagrass beds are one of the most important ecosystems in the Mediterranean region, supporting an enormous diversity of marine fauna. However, with anthropogenic influences including dredging and modification of shorelines, pollution and other drivers, seagrass ecosystems facing increasing threats. To improve monitoring of seagrass extent, Dimosthenis Tranganos and Peter Reinartz from the […]
Using the Yukon Flats in Alaska as the test study area, Sarah Cooley and colleagues evaluated the potential scientific utility of the Planet Dove constellation for hydrologic modeling and research. The study concluded that Planet imagery can improve mapping and tracking changing inundation extent of hundreds of small, heterogeneous water bodies in […]
Jakob Steiner and team use digital elevation models and Landsat imagery in combination with high resolution Planet data to quantify surface elevation changes and flow velocities during a glacial surge of the Khurdopin Glacier. They conclude that the high frequency of Planet imagery is useful to capture peak surge velocities that are […]
Planet’s constellation of satellites, with daily revisit rates and sub 5 m resolution, provides the ability to overcome the usual spatiotemporal restrictions associated with traditional remote sensing. Matt McCabe and team explore the suitability of Planet imagery for an array of retrieval opportunities pertinent to hydrology, including leaf area index (LAI) and […]
While Planet’s constellation of satellites currently operates in sun-synchronous orbit, the first generations of Doves were deployed out of the International Space Station (ISS) and therefore do not obey such an orbit. Their configuration in the ISS orbit samples at different local times within the mid-latitudes, and consequently, it is in theory […]
Fine-scale agricultural statistics are important tools for understanding trends in food production, especially in smallholder systems where heterogeneity in production is common. Satellite data is a key component to collecting these statistics for smallholder systems, though not without challenges such as complex sub-pixel heterogeneity, little to no available calibration data, and high […]
Coral reefs—ecosystems that are both ecologically important and sensitive—are disappearing rapidly due to direct human impacts such as overfishing and pollution. Given the remote and often inaccessible geography of reefs, these critical habitats can be difficult to monitor. Research in the Spratly Islands in the South China Sea is helping to change […]
