Planet Earth's Daily Selfie

Planet Labs currently operates 150 active satellites. Every day these satellites capture imagery of the whole of planet Earth. The satellite imagery captured by Planet Labs provide a daily picture of Earth and are therefore ideal for monitoring global changes and trends. Planet Labs' Dove satellites are able to create a complete image of the Earth once per day at 3-5 m optical resolution. The satellites do this using a technique called a line scan. You can see how this line scan technique works on a new Planet Globe visualization.

Planet Globe is a fantastic visualization of how Planet Labs' satellites build-up their daily picture of the Earth. The satellites are displayed on the globe as white dots circling the Earth. As the satellites circle the Earth they capture imagery of the planet below. As the Planet Globe visualization plays out you can see these individual satellite images being added to the 3D globe, showing how Planet Labs' network of 150 satellites creates its complete daily Earth selfie. The satellite images used in the visualization were all captured on January 25th, 2018.