Planet Wins German Federal Agency Contract

Image of Aosta, Italy shows the latest PlanetScope capabilities with improved band-to-band alignment. Planet Labs PBC photo, 2021

Planet has won a new contract with one of Germany’s federal agencies. The company announced July 13 that it had signed a contract with the German Federal Agency for Cartography and Geodesy (BKG) to provide the agency with daily, high-resolution satellite data for crisis response, environmental and nature conservation, as well as forest and agricultural monitoring. The BKG uses the remote sensing data, among other datasets, to produce up-to-date analyses of environmental changes caused by climate change. Through this contract with its German subsidiary, employees of more than 400 German federal institutions now have the opportunity to gain direct access to Planet’s data.

For this cooperation, the BKG has set up a completely new infrastructure that provides access to Planet’s satellite data as well as individual and rapid consulting services for the entire German federal administration, training for federal staff, and the production and provision of maps. These services are combined in the BKG’s satellite-based crisis and situation services (SKD) for the German federal government.

“It is particularly important for us to meet the specific needs and requirements of the German federal government with our services. High-frequency satellite data is an essential part of this. We want to promote the use of earth imaging data in the federal government by providing it to all federal agencies,” Thomas Wiatr, head of satellite-based crisis and situation services (SKD) at the BKG, said in a statement.