## Planet's New Earth Data Solution Addresses Three Critical Monitoring Challenges

Planet has introduced a groundbreaking product that transforms how organizations track environmental conditions globally. The Planetary Variables offering combines three complementary data streams designed to measure soil moisture, ground temperature, and crop health—addressing long-standing gaps in earth observation technology.

The solution emerged from Planet's strategic acquisition of VanderSat, an earth analytics specialist. By integrating VanderSat's advanced processing algorithms with Planet's satellite constellation, the company has created a unified platform that delivers pre-processed intelligence ready for immediate application.

### Breaking Through Cloud Cover: The Microwave Advantage

Unlike optical sensors that struggle during cloudy or rainy conditions, Planetary Variables leverages passive microwave technology from publicly available satellites. This approach enables consistent data collection regardless of weather patterns—a capability that fundamentally changes monitoring reliability across agricultural regions and disaster zones.

The three data streams operate at different resolutions optimized for their specific use cases. Soil Water Content and Land Surface Temperature measurements arrive at 100-meter resolution, while the Vegetation Biomass Proxy operates at 10-meter granularity, allowing users to match analysis precision to their operational needs.

### Real-World Applications Driving Adoption

VanderSat's historical work demonstrates the practical value of this integrated approach. Insurance companies including Swiss Re and Axa Climate have built drought-protection products using soil moisture intelligence, while yield forecasting models for crops from corn to cocoa have benefited from thermal data integration. Agricultural input providers like BASF have deployed biomass monitoring to assess field health across customer operations.

With Planetary Variables now combining optical and radar data inputs alongside daily satellite imagery, organizations gain a multi-layered perspective on the locations they monitor. Time-series analysis becomes accessible without the traditional data manipulation overhead.

### Historical Context and Predictive Power

The Planetary Variables feeds incorporate extensive historical archives, establishing baseline conditions for any geographic location. This temporal context enables more sophisticated environmental modeling and supports detection of meaningful deviations from normal patterns—critical for identifying emerging climate impacts before they become visible in conventional imagery.

The combination of daily refresh capability, cloud-independent measurements, and pre-processed data outputs addresses a fundamental constraint that has historically limited satellite data utility. Organizations across agriculture, insurance, banking, and emergency response operations can now access standardized earth observations designed for decision-making rather than further processing.

For further details on accessing Planetary Variables capabilities, interested organizations can engage with Planet's sales team.