Planet Labs Data

• Student Data Account Access
  • Sign up for a student Planet data account.
  • It can take up to 48 hours to gain access to a Planet Lab data account.
• Researcher Data Account Access
  • Sign up for a faculty and researcher Planet account.
  • It can take up to 48 hours to gain access to a Planet Lab data account.

• Access to a Planet Labs account and data is available to faculty, staff, designated campus colleagues, and students with an active University of Arizona NetID and email. 
• Student applicants must have a faculty member or research staff member as a sponsor. Exceptions are students who enroll in the Data Challenge. These students will be given access to student-level data that is overseen by the Research Data Challenge sponsors.

• Planet Labs data users do not have to renew their seat and use of the data. However, there are a limited number of Planet Labs user seats available to the campus and a semester review will occur to ensure continuous use.

• Because there are limited user seats to access the data, we ask that individual users (faculty and students) and labs contact UArizona Planet Labs admins when they are done with their research project and can relinquish their seat use.
• For researchers (student or faculty) who complete a project but want to maintain access to the data, we ask that they contact the UArizona Planet Labs admins to indicate they have completed their project, that they would like to maintain access, and will be asked to provide a future use research synopsis.

• We want to make access to the use of Planet Labs data to all researchers, including those within a lab group. As space permits, we will allow labs to designate out user access to all lab group members. 
• Should seat access become limited, research groups or labs may be asked to designate one researcher to hold the lab account access. 
• All lab members that need access to the data must have an active UArizona NetID and email, and their names and information will be required. As well as the plan for lab student use.

• Planet Labs data is not public use data and may not be used for any social media promotion, apps, or non-academic related or commercial use publications., unless demonstrating current research. The use of the raw data is restricted to research only. 
• Publication of images may require additional permission, and researchers should check the publication documents with Planet Labs or contact Angela Cruze, ICDI program manager.
• See Planet Labs Terms of Service for additional information.

• A UArizona Planet Labs data Slack channel has been created to discuss all things Planet Labs data. If you would like to be added to the channel, please email Angela Cruze, ICDI program manager.

For journal articles, use the following citation:

• Planet Team (2017). Planet Application Program Interface: In Space for Life on Earth. San Francisco, CA https://api.planet.com/

For figure captions, use:

• “Image Ⓒ[year of capture], Planet Labs PBC.”

• CyVerse can support your storage and use of Planet Labs data. Sign up for a CyVerse account.  
• For Research Data Challenge Students, select the Data Challenge as your user group.

• Planet Lab Data use support will be available on Monday afternoons for students and faculty. 
• Please contact Carlos Lizzaraga at to schedule a data use appointment. Zoom group use lessons are available. 
• For Research Data Challenge participants, please contact Angela Cruze for general research support.

• Access ArcGIS Pro from the website or contact Andy Honaman for programs that may work best with Planet Data and how to access.
• UArizona students, faculty, and staff can utilize VCAT (Virtual Computer Access Technology) to  access ArcGIS, as well as alternate options for MAC users here.

"Education and Research Rights" means the right to: (i) use, access, and view Content through the Platform during the Term; (ii) reproduce, store, display, and print Content, and create Derivative Products in perpetuity; and (iii) publish articles related to or based upon the Content in perpetuity; all for non-commercial purposes, and solely in academic and research journals. Licensee agre es that all such publications must include an attribution that clearly and conspicuously identifies “Planet Labs PBC” as the source of the Content on which the publication was based.

Terms of use agreement.

The license is administered through UArizona’s Institute for Computation & Data-Enabled Insight.

Planet is a leading provider of global, daily satellite imagery and geospatial solutions. Founded in 2010 by three NASA scientists, Planet designs, builds, and operates the largest Earth observation fleet of imaging satellites, capturing over 30 TB of data per day. The company is driven by a mission to image the world every day, and make change visible, accessible, and actionable. Planet has multiple data access pathways for university researchers and students to utilize their high spatial and temporal resolution imagery for high impact science. From economists to ecologists, experts are combining geospatial datasets, building new models, and deriving new insights with access to Planet data.

 The images from Planet have a much higher resolution at three to five meters and the increased resolution allows for more advanced research and learning opportunities.