Q&A + Resources - Agile EO: Updates to Planetary Variables for Agriculture

In the May Agile EO episode, we shared upcoming updates to Planetary Variables for Agriculture. Watch the webinar on-demand for more information.

Below are answers to common questions and some questions that we weren’t able to get to during the live event. Senior Product Manager, Ariel Zajdband, provided answers, plus resources to learn more.

Question: Are Planetary Variables available globally?

Answer: Yes.

Question: When are these updates to Planetary Variables available?

Answer: 20 m Soil Water Content and Land Surface Temperature is available on June 1, 2025, and 3 m Crop Biomass on August 1, 2025.

Question: I understand that the Planetary Variables have some restrictions, can you share what those are or where on Earth they aren’t available?

Answer: Yes, the restrictions are actually related to slope and the presence of a dense vegetation cover as in rainforests. For more information you can check our documentation. In any case, we can test our data in your area to assess the feasibility of delivering data.

Question: Could the Crop Biomass product be used to estimate forest biomass?

Answer: No, but we do have a forest product. Learn more here.

Question: What is the best way for me to experiment with my particular area of interest?

Answer: Reach out to Ariel (ariel.zajdband@planet.com) to get some sample data over your areas of interest. You can also access Planet Sandbox data.

Question: Which radar satellites are used to produce the soil water content product?

Answer: It’s a combination of AMSR2, SMAP, and Sentinel-2.

Question: Are you planning to release a Crop Biomass in units like kg/ha?

Answer: Not in the near future.

Question: Is ground truthing done on Crop Biomass and Soil Water data?

Answer: Yes, we conducted different evaluations. For more information, we have white papers published on Soil Water Content and Land Surface Temperature, and different peer-reviewed articles on Crop Biomass. Please check the resources section below.

Question: Can we access Planetary Variables directly in Planet Insight Platform and treat them as we do with vegetation indices extraction?

Answer: Yes, definitely.

Question: Is there a quality band to know which bands the vwc comes from?

Answer: This information is for each particular observation and it can be found in the metadata as a tag.

Question: How can I access Planetary Variables?

Answer: Through Planet’s Subscriptions API. Reach out to get started!