PLANET LABS, SAN FRANCISCO, CA (1 MONTH)
As my residency at Planet comes to a close, I made a series of watercolors based on SkySat imagery from Terra Bella (formerly Skybox Imaging), Planet’s subsidiary company. Terra Bella provides high-resolution Earth observation satellite imagery, high definition video and analytics services.
SkySat satellite’s high resolution imagery can observe objects that impact the global economy such as terrain, cars and shipping containers. I found this imagery to be particularly captivating because it has great detail, showing the incredible intricacies of Earth’s surface and man-made systems.
Much like the Dove satellite, the SkySat acts like a line scanner for the planet. The images are sent to Mission Control stations in image strips. The photos are then placed into the SkySat standard acquisition format, resembling a “tuning fork” structure. After chatting with Joseph Mascaro, Planet’s Program Manager for Impact Initiatives, he mentioned that after SkySat imagery is placed into the structure above, all sections are pieced together like a puzzle.
This Tetris-like symbol is fascinating to me. Since I make a lot of hand-made painted puzzles to promote planetary connectivity, it is exciting to see how Planet also connects the pieces that make up our Earth. Who knew that puzzles are a suitable medium for planet data? A beautiful connective structure to show that all parts of our globe are connected.
