Software:Planetary Computer

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Short description: the PC is one of the largest geospatial platforms, it should have presence on wikipedia


Planetary Computer.[1] is a cloud computing platform by Microsoft for processing geospatial data. The Planetary Computer is based on, and released as, open-source[2][3]. The compute platform is Dask while the data index is the Open standard STAC. It is a similar platform than Google Earth Engine[4].

Data Archives and API

The Planetary Computer hosts the largest[5] indexed collection of public Satellite imagery with more than 52 Petabytes in the archive[6]. The archive is compromised mostly on public satellite providers, but also commercial providers under open license, like Norway's International Climate and Forests Initiative Satellite DataProgram "NICFI" from Planet Labs[7].

All the data is hosted on the same datacenter in Europe[8], co-located with computing resources to process and manipulate the data. Some datasets, like Sentinel or Landsat are updated constantly as the satellites take more images. All data hosted can be retrieved and inspected visually with the Explorer tool[9] y via APIs[10] to facilitate scalable computation.

Explore tool

The Planetary Computer Explore tool allows to visualize the Data Catalogue, rendering any location and time from the archive, share it with anyone with the URL, and provide the associate code for analytics. Like the rest of the platform it is based on, and documented, open source technology.

Compute environment

The Planetary Computer does not have a proprietary compute environment. Instead they deployed and manage an instance of the Open source compute environment "Pangeo" which is based on Python (programming language), Dask and other libraries.

Timeline

The Platform was announced on April 2020[11][12] as part of Microsoft's AI for Earth $50 million program[13], and first launched in public preview on April 2021[14], with a $1 million partnership with Group on Earth Observations.[15]

In June 2021, in cooperation with Esri and Impact Observatory, released[16] the most detailed global annual Land cover map.[17]

In March 2022, Pacific Community launched "Digital Earth Pacific" powered by the Planetary Computer[18][19]

In May 2022 Esri announce their integration with the Platform[20] to be relased by end of 2022[21]

In October 2022 the United Nations UN Biodiversity lab was launched powered by the Planetary Computer[22][23]

References

  1. "Microsoft Planetary Computer" (in en). https://planetarycomputer.microsoft.com/. 
  2. "Microsoft Planetary Computer" (in en). https://planetarycomputer.microsoft.com/docs/overview/about#built-on-open. 
  3. "The Planetary Computer - November 21, 2022" (in en-US). https://mapscaping.com/podcast/the-planetary-computer/. 
  4. "Google Earth Engine vs. the Microsoft Planetary Computer" (in en-US). https://www.techforwildlife.com/blog/2022/10/10/google-earth-engine-vs-the-microsoft-planetary-computer. 
  5. "State of STAC". https://developers.planet.com/blog/2022/Aug/31/state-of-stac/. 
  6. (in en) NASA Data & Computing Architecture Study Workshop - Microsoft Planetary Computer, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8eudm6tRUsU, retrieved 2022-11-21 
  7. "NICFI Satellite Data Program Extended to Include Recipients ...". https://www.planet.com/pulse/nicfi-satellite-data-program-extended-to-include-recipients-of-the-geo-microsoft-planetary-computer-grants-program/. 
  8. "Microsoft Planetary Computer" (in en). https://planetarycomputer.microsoft.com/docs/concepts/computing/. 
  9. "Microsoft Planetary Computer" (in en). https://planetarycomputer.microsoft.com/explore?c=30.0586,29.9930&z=2.00&v=2. 
  10. "Microsoft Planetary Computer" (in en). https://planetarycomputer.microsoft.com/docs/quickstarts/reading-stac/. 
  11. Etherington, Darrell (2020-04-15). "Microsoft's new 'Planetary Computer' project will use global environmental data to support sustainability" (in en-US). https://techcrunch.com/2020/04/15/microsofts-new-planetary-computer-project-will-use-global-environmental-data-to-support-sustainability/. 
  12. Toadvine, Haley (2020-12-18). "Microsoft Launches a 'Planetary Computer' To Support Global Sustainability" (in en). https://earth.org/planetary-computer/. 
  13. "Microsoft’s chief environmental officer on why we need a Planetary Computer" (in en-US). https://www.engadget.com/lucas-joppa-planetary-computer-interview-180030143.html. 
  14. "Planetary Computer". 2021-04-21. https://web.archive.org/web/20210421050613/https://planetarycomputer.microsoft.com/. 
  15. "GEO-Microsoft Planetary Computer Programme". https://earthobservations.org/documents/pb/me_202101/PB-19-18_GEO-Microsoft%20Planetary%20Computer%20Programme.pdf. 
  16. "A new land cover map of the world" (in en-us). 2022-03-10. https://storymaps.arcgis.com/stories/486cd2ae2016454f951c97f802f125b3. 
  17. Kontgis, Caitlin (2021-06-25). "Mapping the world in unprecedented detail" (in en). https://medium.com/impactobservatoryinc/mapping-the-world-in-unprecedented-detail-7c0513205b90. 
  18. "Microsoft Planetary Computer helps to facilitate Digital Earth Pacific" (in en-GB). https://www.technologyrecord.com/Article/microsoft-planetary-computer-helps-to-facilitate-digital-earth-pacific-129091. 
  19. "Vulnerable Pacific Islands look to data to cope with disasters and help heal the environment" (in en). https://www.spc.int/updates/blog/partners/2022/03/vulnerable-pacific-islands-look-to-data-to-cope-with-disasters-and. 
  20. "Esri to Preview ArcGIS for Microsoft Planetary Computer at Living Planet Symposium" (in en). Financial Post. 2022-05-23. https://financialpost.com/pmn/press-releases-pmn/business-wire-news-releases-pmn/esri-to-preview-arcgis-for-microsoft-planetary-computer-at-living-planet-symposium. 
  21. "ArcGIS for Microsoft Planetary Computer | Analysis at planetary scales" (in en-us). https://www.esri.com/en-us/c/product/arcgis-for-microsoft-planetary-computer. 
  22. "UN Biodiversity Lab sets out on a data mission to protect people and planet" (in en). 2022-10-10. http://www.unep.org/news-and-stories/press-release/un-biodiversity-lab-sets-out-data-mission-protect-people-and-planet. 
  23. "UN Biodiversity Lab is now a registered Digital Public Good" (in en). https://www.oneearth.org/un-biodiversity-lab-is-now-a-registered-digital-public-good/.