Do all PlanetScope images have the same quality?

We currently make two classes of PlanetScope imagery available to our customers, standard and test.

To qualify for "standard" image quality an image must meet the following criteria: sun altitude greater than or equal to 10 degrees, off nadir view angle less than 20 degrees, and saturated pixels fewer than 20%. If the image does not meet these criteria it is considered "test" quality.

Each individual PlanetScope scene’s metadata contains animage_statistics.image_quality property that indicates the quality of that particular image.

Planet is also continuously improving the performance of the telescopes that we put into space, and there is a significant improvement in the quality of newer images. You might see reference to PlanetScope 1 (PS1) and PlanetScope 2 (PS2) imagery within PlanetScope scene’s metadata instrument property which indicates the generation of telescope that was used to capture an image. All new Planet satellites will host a PS2 sensor.