Satellites are gathering new information every second — and you have access to it. The question: What will you do with it? Here’s how to pull in remote sensed data from several sources, plus a real example of this in action.

1. Remote Sensing
Data - Instant
Home Delivery

2. Landsat (NASA)
Sentinel (ESA)
Planet
UrtheCast

3. Who is using satellite imagery?
1. Government
2. Intelligence agencies
3. Environmental
4. Data analytics
5. Agriculture
6. Disaster management
7. Humanitarian
8. Monitoring assets and resources

4. Landsat (NASA/USGS) Sentinel 2 (ESA) Planet UrtheCast (Future)
Resolution 15/30/100m 10/20/60m 3-5m* 0.5 - 5 m
Status Free Free Paid Paid
Frequency Monthly Weekly (or better) Daily A few times a day
Compare

5. ● Landsat (NASA)
● Nexrad (weather)
● NAIP (agriculture)
● Mapzen Terrain Tiles (elevation)
● GDELT (society)
● Sentinel-2 (ESA)
● Many more

6. Accessing
Satellite Imagery

7. Planet
✔ Daily
✔ Paid (California is free)
✔ Medium resolution

8. • Access via API key
• Satellite groups
o RapidEye (RE)
o PlanetScope (PS)
o Landsat 8
o Sentinel-2
• Assets
o Visual (RGB24)
o Analytic (RGBNir64)+Red Edge with RE
o UDM (unusable data mask) (bit mask shown as UINT8)

9. UDM raster
(unusable data mask)

10. Planet Reader

11. • JSON helpful for advanced queries, e.g.
{"type" : "AndFilter",
"config" : [
{"type" : "RangeFilter", "field_name" : "cloud_cover", "config" : { "lte" : @Evaluate($(CLOUDCOVERAGE)/100) }},
{"type" : "RangeFilter", "field_name" : "black_fill", "config" : { "lte" : @Evaluate($(BLACKFILL)/100) }}
]
}
• First read might take a few minutes, but then it’s cached
• Delivered as GeoTIFF

12. Sentinel-2
✔ Weekly
✔ Free
✔ Medium-low resolution

13. Sentinel 2 Bands

14. Sentinel-2 on AWS Reader

15. Tip: FeatureReader lets you do preprocessing

16. Landsat 8
✔ Monthly
✔ Free
✔ Low resolution

17. Landsat 8 Bands

18. Landsat 8 Useful Band
Combinations

19. Landsat on AWS Reader
(coming soon!)
Web transformers (for now)

20. Example:
Landsat
Download
Assistant
Made by FME

21. UrtheCast
(Coming Soon)
✔ Insanely Frequent
✔ Paid
✔ Insanely High-Res

22. Today’s visit

23. Today’s visit

24. What to do
with this
imagery

25. Examples: Useful
Transformations
● Integrate with other sources
(maps, 3D models)
● Compare images over time
● Perform raster analysis (e.g.
NDVI, feature extraction)
● Live basemap / WMTS
● Add new imagery to database
as it becomes available

26. Satellite imagery
draped over a DEM
or LiDAR scan lets
you visualize the
landscape in 3D.
3D Visualization

27. Tip: Publish workspaces
to FME Cloud for better
performance.

28. Over to FME

29. 3D model with RGB/NIR/NDVI texture

30. 3D model with RGB/NIR/NDVI texture
Flight over Lower Mainland:
https://youtu.be/0m2FVyz5U28

31. Landsat (NASA/USGS) Sentinel 2 (ESA) Planet UrtheCast (Future)
Resolution 15/30/100m 10/20/60m 3-5m* 0.5 - 5 m
Status Free Free Paid Paid
Frequency Monthly Weekly (or better) Daily A few times a day
Choices!

32. To sum up: Remote Sensing is awesome.
● Lots of options for satellite imagery, depending on your
needs.
● Read directly from the cloud and process in FME.
● Use transformers to make basemaps, models, perform
analysis, and more.

33. Questions?
Blog: fme.ly/planet
Blog: fme.ly/eo
Tutorials: knowledge.safe.com
Landsat/Sentinel downloader:
playground.fmeserver.com