Real-Time Satellite Monitoring with Planetscope Imagery

Using PlanetScope Imagery for Research and Teaching at Stanford

Overview

This workshop introduces Planet.com and its PlanetScope daily imagery, with a focus on practical workflows for discovering, accessing, and analyzing high-resolution satellite data for academic research and instruction.

With a constellation of roughly 200 Dove satellites in orbit, PlanetScope provides near-global coverage of the Earth at approximately 3.7-meter spatial resolution, refreshed daily. These data support time-series analysis, environmental monitoring, land-use change detection, and other applications where temporal frequency is critical. Access is available through Planet’s web applications, APIs, and GIS integrations.

Audience

This session is designed for members of the Stanford research and teaching community who are interested in using PlanetScope imagery at scale. No prior experience with Planet tools or APIs is required, though familiarity with GIS, remote sensing, or Python will be helpful.

Attendance is limited to current Stanford University affiliates with full SUNetID privileges.

Agenda

Introduction to Planet and PlanetScope

• Overview of Planet’s satellite constellations
• PlanetScope daily imagery characteristics and use cases
• Access models for academic users at Stanford

Searching and Accessing Imagery with Planet Explorer

• Navigating the Planet Explorer web interface
• Defining areas of interest and time ranges
• Filtering imagery by date, cloud cover, and other attributes
• Previewing scenes and understanding data products

Programmatic Access with the Planet APIs

• Overview of the Planet Data and Orders APIs
• Authentication and basic API concepts
• Transitioning from interactive search to automated workflows

Hands-On Walkthrough Using a Python Notebook

• Guided walkthrough of the provided Jupyter Notebook 
• Demonstration of searching for PlanetScope imagery via the API
• Submitting and managing orders programmatically 
• Using Planet’s server-side processing tools 
• Downloading and visualizing imagery 

The notebook emphasizes clarity and transparency over optimization, making it appropriate as both a learning tool and a starting point for custom research pipelines.

Logistics

Participants who wish to follow along should bring their own laptops. Computers will not be provided.

PlanetScope Access at Stanford

Stanford provides institutionally supported access to PlanetScope imagery for research and teaching. Details on eligibility, access procedures, and data use guidance are available here:

https://guides.library.stanford.edu/c.php?g=1013467&p=10216495