Session
Session 1: Big Data From Small Satellites 1
Abstract
Planet, an aerospace company that designs, builds and operates a fleet of Earth imaging small satellites, is under contract with the Navy's Program Executive Office Space Systems to expand imaging collections over water and develop technology to make this data accessible through its web-based geospatial platform. Planet has deployed a constellation of low-cost, state of the art small satellites that will effectively act like a line-scanner of the Earth’s surface. Planet’s current mission is to provide images of the entire Earth’s landmass one time per day, every day. The work with the Navy seeks to expand this global monitoring capability from the land to the sea, starting with coastal regions and expanding into the oceans. Planet’s innovative approach to space is also observed in its image pipeline and rectification processes which will be discussed in this paper. Rectification and interpolation approaches are evaluated over water collects to observe how these impact relative geo-accuracies out to 10km, 60km, and open water (>=100km). Analysis revealed relative geo-accuracies of 220m at 10 km, 221m at 60 km, and >~1.4km in open water.
Planet's Open Water Imaging - Geo-Accuracy Assessment
Planet, an aerospace company that designs, builds and operates a fleet of Earth imaging small satellites, is under contract with the Navy's Program Executive Office Space Systems to expand imaging collections over water and develop technology to make this data accessible through its web-based geospatial platform. Planet has deployed a constellation of low-cost, state of the art small satellites that will effectively act like a line-scanner of the Earth’s surface. Planet’s current mission is to provide images of the entire Earth’s landmass one time per day, every day. The work with the Navy seeks to expand this global monitoring capability from the land to the sea, starting with coastal regions and expanding into the oceans. Planet’s innovative approach to space is also observed in its image pipeline and rectification processes which will be discussed in this paper. Rectification and interpolation approaches are evaluated over water collects to observe how these impact relative geo-accuracies out to 10km, 60km, and open water (>=100km). Analysis revealed relative geo-accuracies of 220m at 10 km, 221m at 60 km, and >~1.4km in open water.
