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Planet QGIS Plugin

The Planet QGIS Plugin provides access to Planet satellite imagery directly from QGIS. With the add-in, you can access the following features:

  • Image Search: Search the Planet Imagery catalog to find and order imagery when and where it is needed.
  • Order Status: View the status of your orders and add them to your maps.
  • Planet Basemaps: Search for Planet Basemaps to stream for visualization or download for analysis workflows.
  • Planet Inspector: Inspect the source images and their metadata for Basemaps that you have added to your maps.
  • Planet Tasking: Specify coordinates for high-resolution tasking to send to the Planet Tasking Dashboard.

Setup Guide​

System Requirements​

Installation​

Option One: Install directly from QGIS​

  1. Ensure QGIS (version 3.10 and later) is downloaded and installed

  2. Launch QGIS and from the dropdown menus along the top, choose Plugins --> Manage and Install Plugins

  3. Search for the plugin planet_explorer, click Install

  4. Select Log in from the Planet toolbar and enter your Planet credentials

  5. (Optional) Toggle on the option to Save Credentials to have your login persist between sessions

Option Two: Download the plugin​

  1. Download the Planet QGIS Plugin

  2. Double click the download to install

  3. Select Log in from the Planet toolbar and enter your Planet credentials

  4. (Optional) Toggle on the option to Save Credentials to have your login persist between sessions

note

For assistance with login issues, such as the Enter Credentials or Master Authentication pop-up, try creating a new profile or granting permissions. When creating a new profile, make sure to check and change the privileges from read-only to read and write if necessary. For detailed instructions, you can check this guide.

Search for Imagery​

The Planet QGIS Plugin provides a search interface that allows you to filter imagery by date, cloud coverage, and more. You can use it to search for imagery that you would like to order.

  1. Open the Image Search panel from the Planet Imagery ribbon

  2. Set an AOI using the options at the top for map extent, file upload, map layer extent, or by drawing a polygon

  3. Select the Filter Results button to the left of the Search button on the Image Search Panel

  4. Specify your search filters, such as for maximum cloud coverage, time of interest, satellite constellation, and more

  5. Select Back from the top-left

  6. Select Search in the Imagery Search Panel

The panel will display a list of images that match your search criteria. Imagery search results are grouped by date and product type.

You can explore your search results even further by selecting the drop down arrows left of each result. This will show satellite strips from a date, and can be expanded further to see specific images.

Saved Searches​

You can save your search parameters to your account so that they can be reused to order again.

  1. Select the Save button to the top of the search results

  2. Give your search a name

  3. (Optional) Select Exclude End if you want to have the search always display the most recent imagery

  4. Select Save

Stream Preview Tiles​

You can stream preview tiles to inspect images before ordering. Preview tiles are compressed, lower-resolution, 8-bit, 3-band images that are ideal for quick visual inspection of the imagery.

  1. Select images in your search results that you would like to view by toggling the checkbox

  2. Select the Add Images to Map button to the top right of the search results

Order Imagery​

Once you have found the imagery you want, you can order it directly from the add-in. This will provide you with the full-quality image with full bit-depth, spatial resolution, and spectral bands.

  1. Select images in your search results that you would like to order by toggling the checkbox

  2. Select the Order button to the bottom right of the search results

  3. Enter an order name and select Continue

  4. Select the asset that you would like to order

  5. Toggle on any of the available tools that you would like to be used for the order

Order tools

You can read more about tools for ordering here. Available tools are dependent on the asset type and the tools that are available to you. Clipping supports supports arbitrary polygons as well as multipolygons, so long as the vertices count is less than 500.

Order Status​

Once an order has been placed, you can monitor its status and download it (once available) from the Planet Order Status Panel. The Order Status Panel displays orders for both imagery scenes and Basemap quads.

  • When an imagery scene is available for download, a Download button will appear for the order.
  • If you've already downloaded the order, you will see an option to Re-Download.
  • You can also select Show in File Explorer to open the file location where the imagery was originally downloaded or select Add to Project Catalog to view the folder from the QGIS catalog.
  • Once your order has finished processing, you can select Add to Map. Using the Add to Map button in the Order Status Panel will automatically render your data in true color RGB.

Explore Basemaps​

If you have access to Planet Basemaps, you can use the add-in to:

  • Search for available basemaps
  • Stream basemaps for visualization
  • Inspect basemaps to identify pixel provenance and metadata
  • Download basemaps
note

If you want to learn more about working with Planet Basemaps, please see documentation Planet Basemaps and the Basemaps API.

Search and Stream Basemaps​

Basemaps are organized into three categories: One Off, Series, and All. Which basemaps you can access will depend on your account's permissions.

  • The One Off filter returns basemaps that were purchased and produced for a single AOI (Area of Interest) or TOI (Time of Interest). These basemaps are not part of a time-series.
  • The Series filter returns basemaps that are part of a time-series. Time-series basemaps are typically produced at regular intervals, such as monthly or weekly.
  • The All filter is a catch-all category that includes both One Off and Series basemaps. It also provides a text filter that allows you to search for basemaps using keywords.

All basemaps can also be filtered by the Surface Reflectance only option. Applying this filter limits results to basemaps that have been atmospherically corrected for surface reflectance values.

  1. Toggle on or off the Surface Reflectance basemaps only option

  2. Select the One Off, Series, or All filter

  3. Use the additional filters to identify the basemap you want to visualize

  4. Select a basemap or a series of basemaps from the results by toggling their checkbox. For series, you can choose Select All

  5. Select Explore Selected and the basemaps will be streamed to your map for visualization

Once basemaps are added to your map, a new tool will appear in the table of contents. This tools let's you view different time steps in a series.

Inspect Basemap Source Scenes​

Basemaps are composed of multiple source scenes. You can inspect the source scenes and their metadata for a basemap that you have added to your map.

Before inspecting, ensure:

  • The basemap you want to inspect is selected in the QGIS table of contents.
  • If using a Basemap Series, confirm that the specific temporal instance is active using the Planet Basemap Tools ribbon.
  • Zoom to the area of interest that you'd like to inspect.

Once you've set up the basemap, you can inspect the source scenes:

  1. Open the Planet Inspector panel from the Planet Imagery ribbon

  2. Select the pencil icon and click on a point on the map. The source scene for that pixel will be displayed, showing metadata such as the collection date and UTC time

  3. Select the cog to search for the image in the image search panel.

In the Search Panel, you can explore additional metadata, stream a preview image, or download the source image that was used to create the basemap.

Download Basemaps​

Planet Basemaps are distributed as a grid of GeoTIFF files which are called Basemap Quads. You can download these quads through the add-in.

  1. Select the basemap instance or instances that you would like to download from the Basemaps Panel search results

  2. Select Order from the bottom-right of the panel

  3. Select either Download quads from an area of interest or Download complete basemap

Download quads from an area of interest​

If you choose this option, you can constrain your download to a specified area of interest.

  1. Select Download quads from an area of interest

  2. Provide an area of interest using the Extent, Draw, Selection, or Upload tools

  3. Select Find Quads to query the Basemaps API to find all the quads across the basemap instances you selected for download

  4. Toggle the checkbox for the quads you would like to download

  5. Select Next

  6. Give the order a name

  7. Select Submit Order

Download complete basemap​

This can be used for small areas. If you select too large of an area, a warning will pop-up. To download large areas, we recommend that you use the Basemaps API.

  1. Select Download Complete Basemap

  2. Select Next

  3. Give the order a name

  4. Select Submit Order

  5. Select Open Planet Status Panel

  6. Select Download and pick a folder to save the basemap to

Task Imagery​

You can use the add-in to identify coordinates to task new high-resolution imagery collection.

This tool will create an area of interest centered around your selected location.

  1. From the Planet Imagery ribbon, open the Planet Tasking panel

  2. In the Tasking Panel, click on Selection and then click a location on your map

  3. Select Create Task and this will open a new browser window

This will redirect you to the Tasking Dashboard with the coordinates preloaded where you can then complete your tasking order. Please refer to tasking documentation to complete the workflow.

note

To create a high-resolution tasking order, your account must have a tasking plan.

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