In this monthly feature, we span the globe to examine Our Changing Landscape with a time series of medium-resolution PlanetScope satellite imagery. The PlanetScope constellation dates back to 2016 and collects hundreds of millions of square kilometers of four and eight-band 3-meter imagery daily! In September, we looked at imaging of the Alpine Cellars Village area of Ruidoso, New Mexico that was devastated by a wildfire. For the October edition of this series, we are headed to the Caribbean Islands to look at Union Island, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, which is a small island where Hurricane Beryl wreaked havoc this summer.
Click on the image above to see an animation of 3-meter natural color PlanetScope image collected over Union Island in Saint Vincent and the Grenadines on June 7 and July 6, 2024. On July 4th, Hurricane Beryl passed over Union Island as a Category 4 storm and laid waste to the local community there. In the end, nearly every structure on the island was destroyed and at least five were killed. In this tragic animation you can see a before and after view of the island where by most vegetation seems lost given the brownish color of the hills; and then in the towns that are circled, you can see essentially every colored roof is gone. Our hearts are with the Union Island community as they recover and rebuild from Hurricane Beryl. (Images Courtesy: © Planet 2024)The PlanetScope Microsat Constellation
PlanetScope is a constellation of more than 240 microsats referred to individually as Doves. Each Dove is able to collect up to 20,000 square kilometers (sq km) per day of 3-meter (m) 4-band multispectral (i.e. blue, green, red and near-infrared [NIR]) imagery; and newly launched SuperDoves collect 8-band multispectral adding in valuable red-edge spectral data. Across the constellation, PlanetScope is archiving more than 200 million sq km of medium-resolution imagery a day, making it the go to source for daily imagery over most locations. This massive archive dates back to 2016, offering the most complete and continuous record of spatial data on the planet since the start of the constellation’s ongoing launch schedule. Collecting 3-meter multispectral imagery is the equivalent of ‘high-resolution’ multispectral data imaged by a 75-centimer (cm) satellite (as this satellite would feature 75-cm panchromatic and 3-m multispectral), making PlanetScope an extremely competitively priced option at just $2.25 per sq km. With well registered images and nearly daily collections of most locations, PlanetScope is the ideal imagery source for this current-events focused series, Our Changing Landscape.
July 2024 Impact of Hurricane Beryl On The Caribbean Islands
Hurricane Beryl made landfall as a Category 4 hurricane July 1, 2024 on the Caribbean island of Carriacou in Barbados with damage also happening to St. Vincent and the Grenadines. The powerful storm left a path of destruction as it moved west, eventually strengthening into a Category 5. Other islands in the Grenadines archipelago, like Canouan, also suffered extensive damage, including the flattening of houses, schools and buildings, and it even ripped leaves off trees.
On Friday, Hurricane Beryl moved over Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula after battering the resort of Tulum and reemerged in the Gulf of Mexico, prompting Texas officials to ask coastal residents to prepare as the storm headed their way. Beryl caused at least 11 deaths as it passed through the Caribbean Islands.
With maximum sustained wind speeds of more than 160 mph (257 km/h), it became the earliest Category 5 Atlantic Hurricane in records going back around 100 years. In fact, there has only been one previous recorded case of a category five Atlantic hurricane in July – Hurricane Emily, on July 16, 2005. It is believed that exceptionally high sea surface temperatures caused Hurricane Beryl to be so powerful. While a category five hurricane is unheard of this early in the season, its strength fits into the broader picture of how these storms are changing in a warming world, according to the BBC.
If you would like to find out more about using 3-meter PlanetScope imagery for your academic studies, engineering projects or any landscape analysis, let us know at sales@apollomapping.com or (303) 993-3863.
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