What Is the Difference Between Dove, Pelican, and Tanager Satellites?

Will Marshall says Planet Labs flies three kinds of imaging satellites, and each one answers a different question. Doves are the daily scan, the product he says no one else has. They cover Earth's land plus some ocean, about 200 million square kilometers, in eight spectral bands at three-meter resolution, sweeping automatically rather than waiting for a task.

Pelicans are the high-resolution satellites customers point at a place. The aim is more revisits and faster delivery: ask for a picture of somewhere like Tahiti and get an analyzed image back in 30 minutes, from anywhere on the planet.

Tanagers are hyperspectral. A human eye sees three colors. These satellites collect 420 narrow bands, which he describes as a fingerprint of the ground. That fingerprint can separate tree species and crop species, tell camouflage from a real vehicle, and show a methane leak that is colorless in ordinary light. Operators can then be told the leak is there so they can shut it off, which saves the gas and stops the pollution. All three exist to collect better information so people can act on it.