PlanetScope
PlanetScope is one of the satellite constellations operated by Planet. It is now possible to purchase, order and access PlanetScope data using Sentinel Hub (SH).
Discover samples of PlanetScope, free to all active Planet users and Sentinel Hub users with a paid subscription: Sandbox Data for PlanetScope.
About PlanetScope data
Highlights
- Almost daily coverage worldwide
- 3.7-4.1 m pixel size (resampled to 3 m)
- Blue, Green, Red, Near Infrared,
- additional bands Coastal Blue, Green I, Yellow, and Red Edge for the newest generation of satellites.
Mission information
PlanetScope satellite constellation consists of more than 180 satellites called Doves. Each Dove satellite is a CubeSat made of three cubic units and thus measures only 10 cm x 10 cm x 30 cm. The satellites are launched in groups, which constantly improves mission's characteristics such as revisit times, spatial and spectral resolutions. The constellation is constantly "on" and does not require an acquisition planning.
PlanetScope data is an excellent source for vegetation monitoring. It complements Sentinel-2 data with better spatial resolution and better temporal coverage, which is especially important in cloudy areas as it increases the chance of acquiring a cloudless image.
Basic facts
| Property | Info |
|---|---|
| Spatial resolution | 3 m (resampled) |
| Sensor | Four-band frame Imager: Blue, Red, Green and Near-Infrared band Eight-band frame Imager: the above four bands plus Coastal Blue, Green I, Yellow, and Red Edge |
| Revisit time | 1 day |
| Spatial coverage | global |
| Data availability | Global since 2016 |
| Available measurements | Top of the atmosphere reflectance, Surface reflectance |
| Common usage/purpose | Land-cover maps, land-change detection maps, vegetation monitoring |
More information:
- https://www.planet.com/products/planet-imagery/
- https://assets.planet.com/docs/Planet_Combined_Imagery_Product_Specs_letter_screen.pdf
Attribution and use
The PlanetScope products are released under the license available here.
Purchasing PlanetScope data
Note: If you already have your Planet's api key that has access to PlanetScope data, you can skip this section and continue with Ordering PlanetScope Data.
The process of purchasing of PlanetScope data in Sentinel Hub goes as follows:
- Check the pricing and conditions. If you would like to buy bigger area send us an e-mail and we will prepare a custom offer.
- Go to the "Billing" section in your SH Dashboard and buy the Planet Scope plan.
- You will get an invitation from Planet to sign EULA, after which you will receive your Planet's api key.
Once you have your Planet's api key you can proceed to Ordering PlanetScope Data.
Subscribing to PlanetScope Data
To subscribe to PlanetScope Data, use Planet's Subscription api with the option to deliver data to Sentinel Hub. This is the preferred way of subscribing to PlanetScope data.
Subscription to PlanetScope data is for now also possible using TPDI subscriptions endpoint or via EO Browser's "Commercial Data" tab.
Minimum individual subscription is 1 hectare, and is subject to some shape constraints. You can subscribe to smaller areas, however, you will be billed for the minimum area.
Additional info
- Vouchers for non-commercial use available, sponsored by ESA, follow this link.
- Volume discounts possible for large users. Contact us.
- Existing Planet users can use the data through Sentinel Hub using their own credentials.
Ordering PlanetScope Data
To order PlanetScope Data, use Planet's Order api with the option to deliver data to Sentinel Hub. This is the preferred way of ordering the PlanetScope data.
Ordering PlanetScope data is for now also possible using TPDI order endpoint or via EO Browser's "Commercial Data" tab.
Data can be ordered individually or by subscribing to all data that match your criteria. Maximum number of items per order is 500. Orders listing more than 500 itemIds have to be split, and subscriptions must be used instead of search-based orders that match more than 500 items.
Minimum individual order is 1 hectare, and is subject to some shape constraints. You can order to smaller areas, however, you will be billed for the minimum area.
itemType parameter
PlanetScope data are available as
multiple item types, of which Sentinel Hub
supports PSScene.
productBundle parameter
PlanetScope data can be ordered through Sentinel Hub either as scaled top of the atmosphere reflectance or surface reflectance, according to the requested asset type. Furthermore, 4-band and 8-band assets are available. The cost does not increase when ordering 8 bands; however, significantly more data is available as 4-band imagery than as 8-band.
The value of the productBundle parameter specifies what will be ordered:
itemType value | productBundle value | Ordered Optical Asset Type | Ordered Bands |
|---|---|---|---|
PSScene | analytic_udm2 | top of the atmosphere reflectance (asset ortho_analytic_4b) | four optical bands, UDM and UDM2 |
PSScene | analytic_8b_udm2 | top of the atmosphere reflectance (asset ortho_analytic_8b) | eight optical bands, UDM and UDM2 |
PSScene | analytic_sr_udm2 | surface reflectance (asset ortho_analytic_4b_sr) | four optical bands, UDM and UDM2 |
PSScene | analytic_8b_sr_udm2 | surface reflectance (asset ortho_analytic_8b_sr) | eight optical bands, UDM and UDM2 |
harmonizeTo parameter
Harmonization tool can optionally be applied to harmonize PSScene surface reflectance products to Sentinel-2 values.
The user can turn off the harmonization tool by setting "harmonizeTo" to "NONE" when placing an order.
Due to the interdependency between supported harmonizations and other parameters, harmonizeTo has no default value and must therefore always be explicitly specified.
Other parameters
Other parameters are set by SH and cannot be changed by the user.
| Provider's parameter / tool | The values used by SH for ordering |
|---|---|
| Top of Atmosphere Reflectance (toar) tool | is applied for top of athmosphere asset types with toar scale factor 10000 not applied for surface reflectance asset types |
| Clip tool | is applied |
More information:
- https://developers.planet.com/apis/orders/tools/#tools-reference
- https://developers.planet.com/apis/orders/product-bundles-reference/
Note: If you would need any other PlanetScope product, please contact us.
Once your order is successfully finished the ordered data will be available in one of your BYOC collections. The tiles in the collection will correspond to PlanetScope scenes. To access the data you will need the id of this collection.
Accessing PlanetScope Data
Accessing of the PlanetScope data is similar to accessing any other BYOC data. All processing and filtering options listed there can be used. However, the settings specific for accessing of PlantScope data are listed below.
Endpoint Locations
| Service | Notes |
|---|---|
| https://services.sentinel-hub.com/ | Contains the data purchased by individual user |
Filtering Options
collectionId
Use the id of the BYOC collection into which your PlanetScope data was delivered as a value of parameter input.data.type in the process API requests. See BYOC data access for more information.
Available Bands and Data
This chapter will explain the bands and data which can be set in the evalscript input object.
Any string listed in the column Name can be an element of the input.bands array in your evalscript.
The optical band wavelengths depend on the sensor the data was captured with. The description column below specifies the wavelengths for the newest PSB.SD instrument. The values for the older instruments PS2 and PS2.SD can be found here.
Item Type PSScene
| Name | Description | Resolution |
|---|---|---|
| coastal_blue* | Coastal Blue, 431 - 452 nm | 3m |
| blue | Blue, 465 - 515 nm | 3m |
| green_i* | Green I, 513 - 549 nm | 3m |
| green | Green, 547 - 585 nm | 3m |
| yellow* | Yellow, 600 - 620 nm | 3m |
| red | Red, 650 - 680 nm | 3m |
| rededge* | Red-Edge, 697 - 713 nm | 3m |
| nir | Near Infrared, 845 - 885 nm | 3m |
| clear | Usable Data mask - Clear mask | 3m |
| snow | Usable Data mask - Snow mask | 3m |
| shadow | Usable Data mask - Shadow mask | 3m |
| haze_light | Usable Data mask - Light haze mask | 3m |
| haze_heavy | Usable Data mask - Heavy haze mask | 3m |
| cloud | Usable Data mask - Cloud mask | 3m |
| confidence | Usable Data mask - Confidence map | 3m |
| udm1 | Unusable Data Mask | 3m |
| dataMask | The mask of data/no data pixels (more). | N/A** |
* Only included when ordering 8-band bundles, only available for the instrument PSB.SD.
** dataMask has no source resolution as it is calculated for each output pixel.
Note: Band names were updated in March 2024 for consistency. Previously the band names were: CoastalBlue, Blue, GreenI, Green, Yellow, Red, RedEdge, NIR, UDM2_Clear, UDM2_Snow, UDM2_Shadow, UDM2_LightHaze, UDM2_HeavyHaze, UDM2_Cloud, UDM2_Confidence, UDM. Although evalscripts with the old band names still work, we recommend always use the new band names.
Item Type PSScene4Band (deprecated)
Note: PSScene4Band is deprecated and cannot be ordered since November 1st 2022. This only applies to products that
have already been ordered.
The optical bands for PSScene4Band item type are named numerically B1-B4.
| Name | Description | Resolution |
|---|---|---|
| B1 | Blue, 465 - 515 nm | 3m |
| B2 | Green, 547 - 585 nm | 3m |
| B3 | Red, 650 - 680 nm | 3m |
| B4 | Near Infrared, 845 - 885 nm | 3m |
| UDM2_Clear* | Usable Data mask - Clear mask | 3m |
| UDM2_Snow* | Usable Data mask - Snow mask | 3m |
| UDM2_Shadow* | Usable Data mask - Shadow mask | 3m |
| UDM2_LightHaze* | Usable Data mask - Light haze mask | 3m |
| UDM2_HeavyHaze* | Usable Data mask - Heavy haze mask | 3m |
| UDM2_Cloud* | Usable Data mask - Cloud mask | 3m |
| UDM2_Confidence* | Usable Data mask - Confidence map | 3m |
| UDM | Unusable Data Mask | 3m |
| dataMask | The mask of data/no data pixels (more). | N/A** |
* Only included if the productBundle field is set to analytic_udm2 or analytic_sr_udm2.
** dataMask has no source resolution as it is calculated for each output pixel.
Units
The data values for each band in your custom script are presented in the units as specified here. In case more than one
unit is available for a given band, you may optionally set the value of input.units in your evalscript setup
function to one of the values in the Sentinel Hub Units column. Doing so will present data in that unit. The Sentinel
Hub units parameter combines the physical quantity and corresponding units of measurement values. As such, some names
more closely resemble physical quantities, others resemble units of measurement.
The Source Format specifies how and with what precision the digital numbers (DN) from which the unit is derived are
encoded. Bands requested in DN units contain the pixel values which are the result of ordering and preprocessing the
data as explained in the chapter Ordering PlanetScope Data. Note
that resampling may produce interpolated values. DN is also used whenever a band is derived computationally (like
dataMask); such bands can be identified by having DN units and N/A source format.
For PlanetScope bands, DN are the default and only unit. Reflectance values can be obtained for the optical bands
using the simple formula: reflectance = DN / 10000.
The Typical Range indicates what values are common for a given band and unit, however outliers can be expected.
| Band | Physical Quantity (units) | Sentinel Hub Units | Source Format | Typical Range |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Optical bands | Scaled reflectance (unitless) | DN | UINT16 | 0 - 4000. Highly reflective pixels can have values above 10000. |
| clear | Clear mask (unitless) | DN | UINT8 | 0 - not clear 1 - clear |
| snow | Snow mask (unitless) | DN | UINT8 | 0 - not snow 1 - snow |
| shadow | Shadow mask (unitless) | DN | UINT8 | 0 - not shadow 1 - shadow |
| haze_light | Light haze mask (unitless) | DN | UINT8 | 0 - not light haze 1 - light haze |
| haze_heavy | Heavy haze mask (unitless) | DN | UINT8 | 0 - not heavy haze 1 - heavy haze |
| cloud | Cloud mask (unitless) | DN | UINT8 | 0 - not cloud 1 - cloud |
| confidence | Confidence map (percent) | DN | UINT8 | 0 - 100 |
| udm1 | Unusable data mask (unitless) | DN | UINT8 | 0 - fully usable data other - potentially problematic/unusable data Full description is in Planet's documentation (Page 91, Section 2. UNUSABLE DATA MASK FILE). |
| dataMask | N/A | DN | N/A | 0 - no data 1 - data |
Mosaicking
All mosaicking types are supported.
Note: Part of PlanetScope data delivery are also cover geometries, which get automatically assigned to tiles in Sentinel Hub PlanetScope data collection. There are instances where the cover geometries contain nodata pixels, often at the edges of tiles. This might result in data gaps when visualizing the data in EO Browser or accessing it with Sentinel Hub APIs. Please review the Workarounds section in BYOC API documentation to learn how you can utilize mosaicking TILE and dataMask band in your evalscript to obtain data values in such cases.