Satellite Tasking Explained: How to Order Custom Satellite Imagery
When existing archive imagery doesn’t match your timeline, location, or sensor requirements, satellite tasking lets you order a new capture whenever you need it. Instead of settling for data that’s weeks or months old, you define the exact parameters such as area of interest, resolution, sensor type and cloud cover threshold. Then, a satellite operator schedules a dedicated collection pass over your area.
This guide breaks down how satellite tasking works, when it makes sense over archive purchases, what parameters drive cost and quality, and how platforms like SkyFi simplify the process by routing tasking requests across multiple satellite constellations from a single interface.
What Is Satellite Tasking?
Satellite tasking is the process of requesting a satellite operator to capture new imagery of a specific location within a defined time window. Unlike purchasing archive imagery, where you browse a catalog of previously collected scenes, tasking gives you control over when, where, and how the data is acquired.
A tasking order typically specifies an area of interest (AOI), the desired resolution, acceptable cloud cover percentage, the sensor modality (optical, SAR, or multispectral), and the acquisition window. The operator then schedules the collection into the satellite’s orbit plan and delivers the data once it’s captured and processed.
Satellite tasking has historically been limited to government agencies and large defense contractors with direct operator relationships and six-figure budgets. That has changed. The rapid expansion of commercial constellations from operators like Vantor, Planet, Satellogic, Umbra, ICEYE, and others has driven down costs and opened satellite imagery to a much wider market, including enterprise teams, insurers, financial services, agricultural analysts, and infrastructure operators.
Satellite Tasking vs. Archive Imagery: When You Need a New Capture
Not every project requires a custom satellite capture. Archive imagery is faster to deliver, often cheaper, and perfectly adequate when timeliness isn’t critical. The decision comes down to four factors:
Recency: If you need imagery from the last 24–72 hours and nothing recent exists in the archive, tasking is the only option.
Specificity: Tasking lets you define exact AOI boundaries, off-nadir angles, and sensor parameters that archive scenes may not cover.
Repeatability: Monitoring campaigns like construction progress, crop cycles and environmental compliance require scheduled repeat captures at consistent intervals.
Sensor availability: If you need SAR data for a region where the archive has only optical coverage, tasking a radar satellite is the path forward.
For one-off analysis of a well-covered region, start with the archive. For anything time-sensitive, site-specific, or requiring repeat coverage, satellite tasking is the right approach.
How to Task a Satellite: The Ordering Process
The workflow for requesting a custom satellite capture follows a consistent pattern across providers, though the procurement complexity, specific interface (if any) and pricing models vary.
Define Your Area of Interest
Every tasking order starts with an AOI, which is the geographic boundary of what you want captured. Most platforms accept a polygon drawn on a map, a GeoJSON file, or a KML upload. AOI size directly affects cost: larger areas require more collection time and may span multiple satellite passes. For most commercial use cases, AOIs range from a few square kilometers (a single construction site) to hundreds of square kilometers (a regional agricultural zone).
Select Sensor Type and Resolution
The sensor you choose determines what information the imagery captures. Optical sensors deliver natural-color or multispectral imagery at resolutions from 30 cm to several meters. Synthetic aperture radar (SAR) sensors operate through cloud cover and at night, making them essential for persistent monitoring in tropical or high-latitude regions. Multispectral sensors capture multiple spectral bands for material identification and vegetation analysis.
Resolution requirements depend on your use case. Sub-meter resolution (below 1 m) is necessary for identifying individual vehicles, structural damage, or small-scale construction activity. Imagery at 1–5 m resolution suits agricultural monitoring, land-use classification, and broad infrastructure mapping.
Set Cloud Cover and Timing Parameters
For optical tasking, cloud cover is the primary risk factor. You’ll set a maximum acceptable cloud cover percentage that typically range from 10% to 20% for analytical work. The tighter the threshold, the longer it may take to fulfill the order, because the satellite may need multiple passes before conditions are clear. SAR tasking avoids this constraint entirely, since radar penetrates clouds.
Timing parameters include the acquisition window (the date range within which the capture must occur) and, in some cases, a preferred time of day. Shorter windows and priority scheduling increase cost but guarantee faster delivery.
Key Satellite Tasking Parameters That Affect Cost and Quality
Resolution
Resolution defines how much detail satellite imagery captures, measured by the real-world size of each pixel. This is technically known as ground sample distance (GSD). A 30 cm resolution image means each pixel represents a 30 cm × 30 cm area on the ground. Higher resolution (smaller pixel size) costs more per square kilometer but reveals more information from finer detail. The highest commercially available optical resolution from satellites as of April 2026 is 30 cm from providers like Vantor (formerly Maxar).
Satellite Revisit Rate and Collection Windows
The satellite revisit rate is how frequently a given satellite or constellation can image the same location. This determines how quickly a tasking order can be fulfilled and how often you can collect repeat imagery. Single-satellite operators may revisit a target every 3–5 days. Large constellations like Planet’s SkySat fleet or Satellogic’s constellation can achieve daily revisits.
For monitoring campaigns, revisit rate is as important as resolution. A weekly construction progress report requires reliable revisit cadence, not just sharp imagery. Platforms that route tasking across multiple constellations rather than locking you into a single operator maximize your chances of hitting collection windows on schedule.
Optical vs. SAR Tasking
Optical tasking delivers the imagery most teams are familiar with: natural-color or multispectral scenes best suited for visual interpretation and spectral analysis. The limitation is weather, when clouds block optical sensors entirely.
SAR tasking uses microwave radar pulses that penetrate clouds, smoke, and darkness. SAR imagery looks different from optical (it renders surfaces as grayscale based on radar backscatter), but it’s useful for all-weather monitoring, subsidence detection, maritime surveillance, and change detection in persistently cloudy regions. Many operational workflows combine both: SAR for guaranteed collection frequency, optical for detailed visual analysis when skies are clear.
Common Satellite Tasking Use Cases
Construction and Infrastructure Monitoring
Construction firms, project owners, and lenders use satellite tasking to track site progress at regular intervals. Bi-weekly or monthly captures at sub-meter resolution document land changes, structural progress, equipment mobilization, and site access changes, without sending teams into the field. Change detection analytics applied to sequential captures automate progress reporting and flag deviations from project plans.
Disaster Response
After natural disasters like floods, earthquakes, hurricanes, and wildfires, emergency responders need current imagery within hours, not days. Satellite tasking with priority scheduling can deliver post-event captures within 24-48 hours. SAR tasking is especially critical here, since disasters often occur during cloudy weather that blocks optical sensors. Organizations like FEMA, the International Charter, and insurance rapid-response teams rely on tasked satellite imagery for damage assessment and resource allocation.
Defense and Intelligence
Government and defense analysts use satellite imagery tasking for persistent surveillance, activity monitoring, and change detection at strategic sites. Tasking parameters in defense contexts often include specific off-nadir angles, stereo pair collection for 3D terrain modeling, and strict delivery timelines. Platforms that support secure ordering workflows and cleared data handling are essential for classified or sensitive missions.
Agriculture and Environmental Monitoring
Agronomists and environmental scientists task satellites for seasonal crop health assessments, irrigation monitoring, deforestation tracking, and compliance verification. Multispectral imagery with NDVI analysis reveals vegetation stress invisible to the naked eye. Monitoring campaigns with regular revisit schedules provide the temporal density needed to track growth cycles or detect illegal land clearing over time.
How to Choose a Satellite Tasking Provider
The satellite tasking market includes both direct operators (companies that own and operate satellites) and aggregation or marketplace platforms (companies that provide access to multiple operators through a unified interface). Choosing between them depends on your requirements:
Single-operator access: works if you know exactly which constellation you need and have the volume to justify a direct contract. You get more control over that operator's specific parameters, but most operators require order minimums, lengthy sales cycles, and custom contracts. It may be difficult for smaller teams or one-off projects to get started. You're also locked into a single constellation's revisit schedule, sensor type, and coverage gaps, with no fallback if weather or orbit timing delays your collection.
Multi-provider platforms: aggregate tasking across constellations, giving you access to multiple sensor types, resolutions, and revisit rates from a single order interface. This approach maximizes collection probability, eliminates the need for multiple vendor relationships, and simplifies procurement. If one operator can't fulfill your window, the platform routes to another with no additional contracts or sales calls required.
Key evaluation criteria include transparent pricing (avoid platforms that require a quote for every order), API availability for programmatic tasking, support for monitoring campaigns, and cloud delivery to AWS S3, Google Cloud Storage, or Azure.
SkyFi operates as a multi-provider satellite tasking platform, routing requests across optical, SAR, multispectral and aerial constellations. Users configure tasking parameters through the web platform, mobile app, or API and the system handles provider selection (if not selected), scheduling, and delivery. For teams that need both archive access and custom captures across sensor types, a unified platform eliminates the complexity of managing multiple operator relationships.
Frequently Asked Questions About Satellite Tasking
How much does satellite tasking cost?
Tasking costs vary based on resolution, sensor type, priority level, and area size. On SkyFi, optical tasking at 50 cm resolution starts at $300 for a 25 km² area. At 30 cm resolution, orders start at around $812 for 25 km². Priority and guaranteed-collection cost more but offer faster turnaround and higher collection assurance. SAR tasking is priced per scene, starting at $675 for a 5 km x 5 km scene. SkyFi displays pricing transparently in the platform, so you can compare options before committing to an order.
How long does a satellite tasking order take to fulfill?
Standard tasking orders are typically fulfilled within 3–14 days, depending on the satellite’s orbit, weather conditions (for optical), and the size of the collection window you specify. Priority tasking can reduce this to 24-72 hours for constellations with high revisit rates. SAR tasking tends to be faster on average because cloud cover isn’t a blocking factor.
Can you task a satellite to capture imagery at night?
Yes, with SAR sensors. Synthetic aperture radar is an active sensor that emits its own microwave signal, so it operates independently of sunlight. Optical sensors require solar illumination and cannot collect usable imagery at night. If your monitoring requirements include nighttime collection, SAR tasking is the appropriate choice.
What is the highest resolution available through satellite tasking?
The highest commercially available optical resolution is approximately 30 cm, offered by operators like Vantor (formerly Maxar). Some aerial providers deliver sub-15 cm imagery such as Vexcel. SAR resolution varies by mode, with spotlight modes achieving sub-50 cm in some commercial systems. Resolution requirements should be matched to the analysis task as higher resolution isn’t always necessary and significantly increases data volume and cost.
What is the difference between satellite tasking and satellite monitoring?
Satellite tasking refers to a single collection request for a specific time window. Satellite monitoring is a series of tasking orders scheduled at regular intervals that could be weekly, bi-weekly, or monthly, to track changes over time. Most platforms, including SkyFi, support monitoring campaigns as a configured workflow rather than requiring you to submit individual tasking orders repeatedly.
Start Ordering Custom Satellite Captures
Satellite tasking puts precise, timely Earth observation data within reach of any organization that needs more than what archive imagery provides. Whether you’re tracking construction milestones, responding to a natural disaster, monitoring agricultural zones, or building intelligence products, the ability to task a satellite on demand across multiple constellations and sensor types is now operationally and financially accessible.
SkyFi’s platform makes satellite tasking straightforward: define your AOI, set your parameters, and let the system route your request to the best-fit constellation. Explore SkyFi’s tasking capabilities at app.skyfi.com, or integrate custom satellite capture directly into your workflows via the SkyFi API.
Sources:
https://www.earthdata.nasa.gov/learn/earth-observation-data-basics
https://www.pgc.umn.edu/guides/commercial-imagery/intro-satellite-imagery/