Will the new Pelican satellites improve E&R resolution?

Student here:

If things are still on schedule at Planet, the new line of Pelican satellites are launching next year and will provide higher resolution imagery and faster revisit times. How soon after launch will these satellites come into use, and will the E&R plans be included in this improvement in imaging capabilities? Currently high resolution tasking (for my current plan) isn’t available beyond 3m, but Pelican promises 30 cm.

Thanks

Aaron Moore

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Hi @Aaron Moore,

Thank you for your question!

The E&R basic license- only contains PlanetScope and RapidEye imagery which like you mentioned is roughly 3-5 meters spatial resolution. The basic licenses are free for academic use and it does not include our SkySat (high resolution at 50cm) imagery.

If you are interested in high resolution imagery then we’d be happy to connect you with our sales team to learn more about our academic packages. As the Pelican constellation has not yet launched we do not have further information about how it will directly impact E&R licenses. Please stay tuned for more information as the Pelican constellation is launched!

If you would like to read more about Pelican here are some resources:

For an overview click here
Planet Pulse Article: Our Next-Generation Satellite Constellation Pelican Is Expected To Deliver Very-High-Resolution And Rapid-Revisit Capabilities
Planet Pulse Article: Planet Introduces New High Resolution Pelican Satellites And Fusion With SAR

@elyhienrich thanks for sharing these resources!

Looking forward to the launch of the Pelican constellation!

A follow-up question on your answer @elyhienrich - Planet recently announced that they are going to update the E&R program. After the update, SkySat data will be available to E&R users. Is there any further information on when this update will come into effect? As of now, I am not able to access SkySat data in the Planet Explorer.

Here is the article for reference: https://www.planet.com/pulse/education-and-research-program-enhances-global-accessibility-and-user-capabilities/

Thanks in advance for your response!

Alina

Hi @alina.baetz,

Thank you for your question. If you have a basic E&R account, nothing will change as the updates do not affect these accounts. For all other accounts it should already be updated.

If you are interested in learning more I would recommend contacting sales here, they will be able to provide you with further information.

However, if you do not have a basic account and are not seeing these changes, let me know and I can open a support ticket on your behalf.