4 ms·

Any of you have any idea of how much the images from planet.com cost?

by siscia 9y ago

notahacker 9y ago
Satellite image prices through a broker, including Planet's RapidEye constellation http://www.landinfo.com/satellite-imagery-pricing.html http://www.landinfo.com/satellite-imagery-pricing.html Prices are per square kilometer, but there's a minimum order of 500 square kilometers, and you're paying for a licence for a certain number of people to use them in a certain way. TLDR: best have at least a few hundred dollars handy even if you're only wanting to look at one city. A lot of lower resolution satellite data is free and open though
- Pica_soO 9y ago
  Has somebody recombined low res data from many satellites to a high res free version? Sort of like many synced cheap oscilloscopes can form a expensive one?
  - notahacker 9y ago
    There is pansharpening (effectively improving the spatial resolution of colour images by combining them with sharper, higher spatial-resolution monochrome images) and using processing techniques to combine low-res images can certainly improve the effectiveness of detecting features which are smaller than the image pixel size, but I don't think anyone's likely to get comparable detail to a sub-1m or even a 5m pixel image out of combining 20m and 30m pixel images taken at different times.
    - Gravityloss 9y ago
      Why not? You can treat it as a statistical problem where you are given low Res samples of the actual data. I've done it myself on a school assignment. A matrix inversion was required. There are things like sensor shift cameras commercially available too. And stacking software for astronomers etc...
- jessriedel 9y ago
  Any idea why the minimum area requirements exist? It completely kills localized applications like a single farm. It seems like a minimum price, which you could also reach by committing to buy regular photos for a period of time, would be a lot more flexible.
  - nine_k 9y ago
    I suspect it's related to the need to possibly re-orient the satellite to have a particular place visible by the camera. It must be relatively slow, and possibly even cost reaction mass, thus the commitment to shoot more of the same area.
    - jofer 9y ago
      Rapideye and SkySat aside, Planet primarily operates a monitoring constellation, rather than a tasking constellation. The doves (satellites used to take this and the satellites being launched) are focused on imaging the land surface of the Earth with an approximately daily cadence. They don't target a particular area, try to reorient, or even have active propulsion (just reaction wheels). This is an exception -- the satellite was tasked to try to capture this and did reorient itself to do so. For the most part, though, the doves just point straight down and capture images whenever they're over land and it's not forecast to be completely cloudy. There are over a hundred of them imaging the earth like a line scanner as it rotates beneath their orbit. The Rapideye satellites operate completely differently, though. They are tasked, and do have to reorient as you mentioned, thus the minimum area requirement for acquisition of Rapideye imagery.
      - jessriedel 9y ago
        Thanks very much for this excellent comment.
      - vonuebelgarten 9y ago
        Their strategy is particularly awesome: a hundred of small short-lived satellites (really small, they're 3-unit cubesats, 30x10x10 cm) operating in a swarm. No big deal if a single one is lost: operation can continue with other ones once they are in position. Also, costs are spread due the possibility of servicing several customers simultaneously in separate locations around the globe.

Any of you have any idea of how much the images from planet.com cost?

by siscia 9y ago

Any of you have any idea of how much the images from planet.com cost?

Satellite image prices through a broker, including Planet's RapidEye constellation http://www.landinfo.com/satellite-imagery-pricing.html http://www.landinfo.com/satellite-imagery-pricing.html Prices are per square kilometer, but there's a minimum order of 500 square kilometers, and you're paying for a licence for a certain number of people to use them in a certain way. TLDR: best have at least a few hundred dollars handy even if you're only wanting to look at one city. A lot of lower resolution satellite data is free and open though

Pica_soO 9y ago
Has somebody recombined low res data from many satellites to a high res free version? Sort of like many synced cheap oscilloscopes can form a expensive one?
- notahacker 9y ago
  There is pansharpening (effectively improving the spatial resolution of colour images by combining them with sharper, higher spatial-resolution monochrome images) and using processing techniques to combine low-res images can certainly improve the effectiveness of detecting features which are smaller than the image pixel size, but I don't think anyone's likely to get comparable detail to a sub-1m or even a 5m pixel image out of combining 20m and 30m pixel images taken at different times.
  - Gravityloss 9y ago
    Why not? You can treat it as a statistical problem where you are given low Res samples of the actual data. I've done it myself on a school assignment. A matrix inversion was required. There are things like sensor shift cameras commercially available too. And stacking software for astronomers etc...
jessriedel 9y ago
Any idea why the minimum area requirements exist? It completely kills localized applications like a single farm. It seems like a minimum price, which you could also reach by committing to buy regular photos for a period of time, would be a lot more flexible.
- nine_k 9y ago
  I suspect it's related to the need to possibly re-orient the satellite to have a particular place visible by the camera. It must be relatively slow, and possibly even cost reaction mass, thus the commitment to shoot more of the same area.
  - jofer 9y ago
    Rapideye and SkySat aside, Planet primarily operates a monitoring constellation, rather than a tasking constellation. The doves (satellites used to take this and the satellites being launched) are focused on imaging the land surface of the Earth with an approximately daily cadence. They don't target a particular area, try to reorient, or even have active propulsion (just reaction wheels). This is an exception -- the satellite was tasked to try to capture this and did reorient itself to do so. For the most part, though, the doves just point straight down and capture images whenever they're over land and it's not forecast to be completely cloudy. There are over a hundred of them imaging the earth like a line scanner as it rotates beneath their orbit. The Rapideye satellites operate completely differently, though. They are tasked, and do have to reorient as you mentioned, thus the minimum area requirement for acquisition of Rapideye imagery.
    - jessriedel 9y ago
      Thanks very much for this excellent comment.
    - vonuebelgarten 9y ago
      Their strategy is particularly awesome: a hundred of small short-lived satellites (really small, they're 3-unit cubesats, 30x10x10 cm) operating in a swarm. No big deal if a single one is lost: operation can continue with other ones once they are in position. Also, costs are spread due the possibility of servicing several customers simultaneously in separate locations around the globe.