Planet is updating the compression scheme used for our standard visual mosaic products. We currently distribute visual mosaic data as LZW-compressed geotiffs with 8-bit RGB data. Starting on June 1, we will transition our visual mosaic products to use JPEG-in-tiff compression instead.
This change will significantly reduce file size, making your data faster to download and easier to store and handle. Importantly, the file format (geotiff) and data content (8-bit RGB data) are remaining the same, with only the compression scheme changing. Similarly, internal overviews and tiff metadata are remaining unchanged. We've conducted internal validation and found no impact from this change on human viewers or on ML models. The change applies across all distribution channels, including downloads from the Basemaps API or Orders API and streaming through the Mosaic Tile Service.
We expect the majority of software used to read mosaic data will continue to function seamlessly. However, if you are using older or highly specialized software, you may encounter compatibility issues. If this happens, please reach out to Planet Customer Success or Support for assistance.
