Planet Discontinues Open California Datasets

Planet Labs used to make their daily satellite imagery of the state of California available for free. A lot of people put it to use, especially during natural disasters like wildfires and the recent earthquake. It doesn't look like there's any mention of the Open California program's termination on their website, but they sent this email out today:

You are receiving this message because you have had access to Planet's Open California, which is coming to an end in 90 days.

Thank you for exploring our imagery catalog. We’ve seen some incredible uses and innovations from researchers, students, developers, and imagery analytics providers alike that have helped push the needle forward for Earth Observation data.

When we launched the Open California program almost 3 years ago, it was an open data initiative and the first time we showcased our data to the world with images from our first Doves. We didn’t have any trials or programs that specifically matched the needs of most of our users (most of you don’t live in California). Since then we’ve created an Education and Research program as well as 14-Day Global Trial that continues to let users see imagery from around the world within our platform.

So what’s next?

We’ll be phasing out the Open California program for existing users in 90 Days. No changes will occur to your program during this time and we’ll be reaching out to you in the coming days to ensure you have ample time to collect the resources that are of interest to you from our platform. Otherwise, please stay tuned for other ways that we can continue to explore together.

Thanks again, Team Planet