ISPRS-Archives The International Archives of the Photogrammetry, Remote Sensing and Spatial Information Sciences ISPRS-Archives Int. Arch. Photogramm. Remote Sens. Spatial Inf. Sci. 2194-9034 Copernicus Publications Göttingen, Germany 10.5194/isprs-archives-XLII-3-W3-7-2017 POTENTIAL AND LIMITATIONS OF PHOTOMETRIC RECONSTRUCTION THROUGH A FLOCK OF DOVE CUBESATS Altena B. https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9025-0326 1 Mousivand A. 2 Mascaro J. 3 Kääb A. https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6017-6564 1 Department of Geosciences, University of Oslo, 0371 Oslo, Norway Remote Sensing and GIS department, Tarbiat Modares University, 14115-111 Tehran, Iran Planet, San Francisco, 94103, USA 19 10 2017 XLII-3/W3 7 11 Copyright: © 2017 B. Altena et al. 2017 This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. To view a copy of this licence, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This article is available from https://isprs-archives.copernicus.org/articles/XLII-3-W3/7/2017/isprs-archives-XLII-3-W3-7-2017.html The full text article is available as a PDF file from https://isprs-archives.copernicus.org/articles/XLII-3-W3/7/2017/isprs-archives-XLII-3-W3-7-2017.pdf

When Earth observation satellite systems are designed, one typically prefers a sun-synchronous orbit. However, the first generations of cubesats from Planet were deployed out of the International Space Station (ISS) and therefore do not obey such an orbit. Their configuration samples at different local times within the mid-latitudes. Consequently, it is in theory possible to exploit photometric techniques and extract highly detailed topographic information. In this study we demonstrate and explore photometry based on Planet cubesat images for Tyndall glacier at the Southern Patagonian icefield, and Zhadang glacier situated on the Tibetan plateau.