50 cm SkySat imagery of the Mundra Power Plant in Gujarat, India, taken on April 4, 2020. Photo: Planet Labs Inc.

Planet has enhanced the spatial resolution of its SkySat imagery from 80 cm to 50 cm, after lowering its SkySat constellation over a time period of six months. The Earth Observation (EO) company said in a Tuesday release that this enhanced resolution  is key for commercial and government mapping customers. 

“This improvement enables customers to get a more precise view of changing conditions on the ground and adds more granular context to decision-making. This is particularly important for commercial and government mapping use cases, where seeing smaller features like road surface markings are key,” Planet Senior Vice President of Product Martin Van Ryswyk wrote in a Tuesday blog post. 

Planet also announced that the six Skysats to be launched this summer will bump the constellation’s revisit rate up to 12 times per day in certain locations, with a global average of seven times per day. Planet currently has 15 SkySats in operation, and SkySats 16 through 21 will be launched into Low-Earth Orbit (LEO) this summer as rideshare payloads on two SpaceX Starlink satellite launches. 

In addition, Planet has also rolled out the Tasking Dashboard, a new user interface that allows customers to request SkySat collections, and a new API that provides automated access. Planet’s intention is that rather than interacting with a human representative, customers can use the Tasking Dashboard and API to autonomously submit, modify, and cancel SkySat imagery requests.