Assessing the Feasibility of using PlanetScope Data for Air Quality Applications

Abstract:

Planet is a commercial company known for having one of the largest operational smallsat satellite constellations. This constellation comprises over 120 3U CubeSats called Doves (equipped with a sensor called PlanetScope), which combined, are able to image the entire Earth’s surface daily at a high 3-meter spatial resolution. With Planet data becoming more readily available to scientists due to NASA’s Commercial Smallsat Data Acquisition Program (CSDAP), this study investigates the feasibility of utilizing Planet data to conduct scientific analyses with an emphasis on air quality research. This study offers a comparison of PlanetScope data with MODIS over a variety of land cover types, as well as in response to varying PM2.5 conditions. It also investigates the feasibility of utilizing PlanetScope data for estimating PM2.5 concentrations using deep learning.