How do satellite constellations like Planet and Maxar support resource monitoring?

Satellite constellations from companies like Planet and Maxar provide high-resolution, multi-spectral imagery of the earth for various applications in energy, defense, agriculture, urban planning, forestry, and environmental monitoring . These commercial satellite systems enable resource monitoring by delivering frequent coverage of the same locations, allowing energy companies to track infrastructure, detect changes, and manage assets without the expense and logistical challenges of ground-based inspections.

Key Points

• Commercial satellite constellations provide daily or near-daily imagery coverage of the entire Earth's landmass
• Multiple spectral bands enable detection of features invisible to the human eye, including vegetation health, moisture content, and mineral signatures
• High-resolution imagery allows detailed monitoring of infrastructure like pipelines, refineries, well pads, and mining operations
• Automated analytics and machine learning detect changes, anomalies, and operational activities across large geographic areas
• Satellite monitoring reduces the need for costly and risky on-site inspections in remote or hazardous locations

Understanding Commercial Satellite Constellations

Planet revolutionized the Earth observation industry with the highest frequency satellite imagery data commercially available , deploying large numbers of small, relatively inexpensive satellites to achieve unprecedented monitoring frequency. The PlanetScope Constellation comprises Dove CubeSats continuously imaging the Earth with a 3.7 meter resolution in RGB and NIR bands . These compact satellites, each about the size of a shoebox, work together to provide near-daily coverage of the planet's entire landmass.

Maxar's constellation of 10 imaging satellites collects the highest-quality commercial imagery, with up to 15 revisits a day, capturing the equivalent of Australia's landmass daily, including over 3.5 million sq km at 30 cm resolution . SkySats provide significantly higher resolution at approximately 50 centimeters per pixel, and these larger satellites revisit any given location up to 10 times daily .

The fundamental advantage of satellite constellations over traditional single-satellite systems is their ability to provide frequent, repeated observations of the same location. This temporal frequency enables monitoring of dynamic processes like construction progress, equipment movements, and environmental changes that would be impossible to track with infrequent satellite passes.

How It Works

1. Multi-Satellite Coverage: Planet has launched hundreds of satellites since 2013 with a diverse range of providers, enabling the company to maintain a consistent and reliable launch cadence to build and maintain constellations while maintaining cost-effective operations . Multiple satellites in coordinated orbits ensure that any location on Earth can be imaged frequently, with some constellations achieving daily revisit times.

2. Multispectral Data Collection: Maxar's WorldView-2 and WorldView-3 satellites are equipped with instruments that collect imagery as panchromatic and 8-band multi-spectral in the Visible and Near Infrared (VNIR) range, and individually and collectively these bands have the power to provide insights into natural and man-made activity on the ground . Spectral indices are numerical ratios created by combining values from different spectral bands of multispectral imagery to highlight specific features of Earth's surface, and multispectral satellite data is captured in bands, each with a given spectral range that correlates to an observed radiance of the Earth, with radiances in certain spectral ranges used to determine qualities such as soil moisture, vegetation mass, and geological features .

3. Automated Processing and Analytics: Every day Planet downloads and processes vast amounts of imagery through its global network of ground stations, and in addition to its dedicated network, the company partners with key third-party providers such as Amazon Web Services (AWS) Ground Station to increase global reach, reduce latency, and lower operational costs . Planet's newest satellites include the NVIDIA Jetson AI platform, which performs on-orbit edge computing to allow satellites to analyze data and extract key information before sending it back to Earth, and rapid processing overcomes data bottlenecks, lowers latency, and greatly accelerates the ability to get actionable insights .

4. Change Detection and Monitoring: Maxar's site monitoring solution leverages industry-leading satellite imagery and geospatial insights to provide energy companies with an efficient way to protect their assets and optimize operations by combining automated tasking and advanced analytics to empower energy companies to monitor their onshore and offshore assets for situational awareness, operational updates and environmental impacts . Maxar's Sentry service taps into the company's 250-plus petabyte collection of high-resolution satellite imagery spanning more than two decades, using AI to cross-reference current observations with historical patterns and anomalies .

Why It Matters

Energy companies often operate in remote locations that make it difficult and costly to regularly monitor infrastructure and assets, and imagery from satellite constellations as well as artificial intelligence-generated insights can help energy companies maintain a current view of activities around the globe, without the expense and risk of sending teams on location until necessary .

Remote sensing via Earth observation satellites provides an innovative and cost-effective way to support resource planning, resource management and risk management, and the need for human inspections is reduced allowing an advanced decision making support and risk management . For the energy sector specifically, satellite monitoring enables continuous surveillance of pipelines for leaks or encroachment, tracking of drilling operations across vast oil and gas fields, monitoring of mining site expansion, and assessment of environmental impacts around energy infrastructure. The combination of frequent revisits, high resolution, and automated analytics transforms satellite data from simple imagery into actionable intelligence for resource management.

Related Terms

• Multispectral Imagery: Satellite images captured in multiple wavelength bands beyond visible light, including near-infrared and short-wave infrared, enabling detection of features like vegetation health, moisture content, and mineral composition that are invisible to the human eye.

• Temporal Resolution: The frequency with which a satellite constellation can revisit and image the same location on Earth, ranging from daily coverage for monitoring constellations to on-demand tasking for high-resolution systems.

• Change Detection: Automated analysis that compares satellite images of the same location taken at different times to identify alterations in infrastructure, land use, vegetation, or other features of interest.

Frequently Asked Questions

What resolution is needed for energy infrastructure monitoring?

Planet's Dove satellites capture daily imagery with a resolution of 3–5 meters per pixel, making them ideal for large-scale monitoring, such as agricultural field analysis, forestry management and environmental assessment . For detailed infrastructure inspection, SkySats provide significantly higher resolution at approximately 50 centimeters per pixel, offering unparalleled detail for applications like infrastructure monitoring, disaster response and urban planning . The appropriate resolution depends on the monitoring objective—broad area surveillance of pipeline routes or mining operations can use medium resolution, while detailed equipment inspection requires sub-meter imagery.

How do satellites see through clouds?

SAR imagery can penetrate clouds and darkness, delivering uniquely reliable monitoring capabilities to civil, commercial and defense organizations around the world . Maxar's Sentry platform aggregates data from the company's own satellites as well as partner constellations, including both electro-optical and synthetic aperture radar (SAR) satellites . While optical satellites like Planet's Doves and Maxar's WorldView systems cannot see through clouds, satellite constellation operators increasingly partner with SAR providers to ensure continuous monitoring capability regardless of weather conditions.

Last updated: June 4, 2026. For the latest energy news and analysis, visit stakeandpaper.com.