San Francisco-based Planet Labs has introduced plans to deploy a world constellation consisting of 32 Earth-observing satellites. Called Pelican, the fleet will monitor things like political conflicts, pure disasters, and the continued results of local weather change.

The Pelican constellation is “designed to efficiently capture brief and rapidly changing events as they unfold,” based on a Planet Labs press release. This performance jibes with the corporate’s acknowledged goal: to “image all of Earth’s landmass every day, and make global change visible, accessible and actionable.” Construction of the 32-satellite constellation is scheduled to start subsequent yr, based on satellite tv for pc imagery and knowledge specialist Planet Labs.

Planet Labs, which manages and operates the PlanetScope and SkySat constellations, says the Pelican satellites signify a serious step ahead in phrases of its capabilities. This newest announcement suggests the corporate is continuous to broaden and refine its orbital choices.

Working collectively, the Pelican satellites will permit for extra frequent imaging of single websites and at increased spatial resolutions. The system also needs to lead to quicker entry to knowledge, the corporate says. In the press launch, Will Marshall, Planet Labs co-founder and CEO, stated Pelican will “meet the evolving needs of customers who want real-time information about global events as they unfold—from floods and wildfires to political conflicts and threats to human rights.”

Pelican gained’t exchange the prevailing SkySat constellation, which consists of 21 satellites, however will as a substitute “replenish and improve” the corporate’s present capabilities, the corporate stated. The upcoming constellation must be able to buying pictures of the identical location 12 occasions per day, and as many as 30 per day on the mid-latitudes. According to a CNBC report, Maxar, a competitor on this area, claims its satellites can re-visit single areas as much as 15 occasions every day. For Planet Labs, this improved re-visit functionality ought to lead to extra dependable visible entry to the floor, equivalent to within the occasion of cloudy climate. Also, the corporate’s prospects ought to be capable to obtain knowledge extra effectively owing to improved latency. The pictures additionally promise to look superb, as Pelican will boast 11.8 inch (30 cm) decision imagery.

In phrases of gross sales, the corporate is concentrating on the protection sector, intelligence companies, civil governments, environmental scientists, catastrophe planners, and software program corporations (for growing maps, for instance). Planet Labs says its prospects will be capable to faucet into Pelican knowledge and in addition observations made by the corporate’s pre-existing satellite tv for pc methods.

Floating in low Earth orbit, the constellation will preserve tabs on our civilization and Earth’s pure methods, monitoring things like gradual demographic shifts, battle zones, storms, wildfires, and altered coastlines. Pelican ought to present extremely detailed before-and-after pictures, significantly within the occasion of pure or human-caused disasters. The close to real-time knowledge will higher equip catastrophe planners and different stakeholders when responding to critical occasions, the corporate says.

Details, such because the operational altitude of the satellites, security issues (equivalent to satellite tv for pc de-orbiting capabilities and trackability), and potential disruptions to ground-based astronomy, weren’t disclosed. Planet Labs didn’t instantly reply to our request for extra data.

Planet Labs is a public firm that started trading on the New York Stock Exchange in December 2021, in a transfer made attainable by a SPAC deal. The firm raised $250 million in funding shortly afterwards and claims to have a “war chest” of $300 million.