Planet and Carbon Mapper to fly SWIR Tanager

SAN FRANCISCO – Planet is developing a new version of its Tanager spacecraft with enhanced capability to detect and monitor methane and trace-gas emissions.

In contrast to the hyperspectral Tanager-1, launched in 2024, the new satellite will “solely target shortwave infrared (SWIR) light” and provide “five times the areas coverage,” Planet said in an April 30 news release.

In addition to the SWIR Tanager, scheduled to launch as early as 2028, Planet intends to build and launch at least three satellites like Tanager-1, which gathers imagery in hundreds of spectral bands from visible to shortwave infrared.

Planet will produce SWIR Tanager with the nonprofit environmental-monitoring organization Carbon Mapper and the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, which designs and builds Tanager imaging spectrometers.

“This SWIR-only version of Tanager will leverage the Carbon Mapper-led Advanced Emissions Monitoring Imaging Spectrometer airborne system in partnership with JPL, which optimizes performance by ‘zooming in’ on the spectral bands most relevant for atmospheric gas detection,” according to the news release.

The SWIR Tanager will gather 30-meter-resolution imagery in 100-kilometer swaths. “Taken together, these modifications have the potential to enhance support for key commercial applications including mineral exploration, fire fuel monitoring and fire source detection,” the news release said.

“By growing the Tanager constellation, we plan to further demonstrate our ability to build cutting-edge spacecraft quickly and efficiently, which continues to hold enormous value for our global customers and partners,” Jeff Guido, Planet vice president of space mission delivery, said in a statement. “We are excited to see more of these spacecraft go into orbit and to unlock the global impact they can deliver.”

Carbon Mapper’s observing system tracks methane and carbon-dioxide emissions with satellite and airborne sensors. To date, the nonprofit has since identified more than 11,000 methane plumes from nearly 5,000 global sources.

“As the Tanager mission continues, the spacecraft will be developed to support both wide-scale methane monitoring and various commercial use cases requiring high-fidelity SWIR hyperspectral data,” according to the news release. “Both Tanager iterations will provide strong complements to one another, helping meet other commercial use cases across biodiversity, water quality, and minerals.”