planet_thumbs

A tool for downloading Planet Labs imagery thumbnails, like the one below, for Alaskan volcanoes. (Also provides a shell script for downloading full-resolution images.)

^{Augustine Volcano on 10 February 2020. Imagery © 2020 Planet Labs.}

Quickstart

NOTE: Both scripts require a valid Planet Labs API key. Set the environment variable PL_API_KEY to your key's value prior to running either script. To sign up for the Planet Labs Education and Research Program, go here.

1. Prepare

   conda create -n planet_thumbs -c conda-forge jq planet
   conda activate planet_thumbs
   

2. Obtain

   git clone https://github.com/liamtoney/planet_thumbs.git
   cd planet_thumbs
   

3. Run

   python planet_thumbs.py <alaskan_volcano_name>
   

   or

   ./download_planet_asset <item_id> <item_type> <asset_type>
   

Examples

1. To grab the most recent thumbnails for Korovin Volcano, run

   python planet_thumbs.py korovin
   

   which produces the following thumbnails (when run on 17 March 2020).

   korovin_20200217_215658_99_106c_PSScene3Band.png
   korovin_20200203_220225_16_106a_PSScene3Band.png
   korovin_20200129_215846_15_106e_PSScene3Band.png
   korovin_20200116_221649_101e_PSScene3Band.png
   korovin_20191220_220344_71_1067_PSScene3Band.png
   

   Output files have the format

   <volcano_name>_<item_id>_<item_type>.png
   

2. To grab the full-resolution visual image corresponding to the first thumbnail listed above, run

   ./download_planet_asset 20200217_215658_99_106c PSScene3Band visual
   

   which downloads the full-resolution product as

   20200217_215658_99_106c_PSScene3Band_visual.tif
   

Notes

1. The first time download_planet_asset is run for a given item, the item is "activated" (queued for downloading). Repeated calls to the script will print activating until the item is queued; then a call to the script will download the file.

2. The downloading script is only designed to work with <asset_type> values of analytic (usually requires processing to be viewable, contains all image data) and visual (immediately openable and viewable, less information).