WMTS Basemap Tile Service

last updated: March 18, 2024

The Planet WMTS Basemap Service allows users to access a listing of Planet's entire catalog of basemaps.

WMTS Catalog Access Request Structure

https://api.planet.com/basemaps/v1/mosaics/wmts?api_key={api-key}

False-color visualizations & indices

Currently, the following seven band combinations and indices are available through the Tile Service. You can find more information on the Remote Sensing Indices page.

WMTS Protocol Overview

The WMTS protocol is similar to the XYZ protocol but has a broader set of compatible 3rd party applications. It adds a uniform catalog protocol allowing the discovery and display of tiled imagery. It provides a pyramid of tiles at 16 zoom levels so that it can be easily displayed in web browsers and various other clients. Planet's WMTS services are compatible with QGIS desktop, ArcGIS Pro, ArcOnline, CesiumJS, and others. As with other WMTS tiling services, Planet WMTS tiles have the following attributes:

  • Tiles are 256 x 256 pixels.
  • Tiles use the Web Mercator coordinate reference system (EPSG:3857).
  • Tiles are available between zoom levels 0 and 18.
  • Tiles are rendered in the PNG format with an alpha channel for transparency.
  • Grid is a rectangle with 2z rows and 2z columns, where z is the zoom level.
  • The grid uses 0,0 as the top, left corner of the grid.

WMTS Basemap Tile Service Request Structure

Global Endpoint

https://api.planet.com/basemaps/v1/mosaics/wmts?api_key={api-key}

Organizations having access to a large number of basemaps can benefit from two specific endpoints for series and mosaics.

Series Endpoint

https://api.planet.com/basemaps/v1/series/{series-id}/wmts?api_key={api-key}

The series endpoint for WMTS also provides a "Latest " layer that can be used to automatically point to the most recent mosaic in the series without needing to update the layer or connection.

Mosaic Endpoint

https://api.planet.com/basemaps/v1/mosaics/{mosaic-id}/wmts?api_key={api-key}

To visualize all the layers available for your API Key, please use the Basemap API

https://api.planet.com/basemaps/v1/mosaics/wmts?api_key={api-key}

Optionally, you may also include the proc={index value} parameter to specify a dynamically-rendered false color visualization, for example, NDVI:

https://api.planet.com/basemaps/v1/mosaics/wmts?api_key={api-key}&proc=ndvi

To add the WMTS Layer to QGIS, follow the instructions at Using Georeferenced Layers in QGIS

Remote Sensing Indices

Planet's Surface Reflectance Basemap products are also available in false-color visualizations to support a wider range of analyses. Currently, the following seven band combinations and indices are available through the Tile Service. For more information, see Remote Sensing Indices.

  • Red-Green-Blue (RGB)
  • Color-infrared (CIR)
  • Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI)
  • Normalized Difference Water Index (NDWI)
  • Visual Atmosphere Resistance Index (VARI)
  • Modified Soil-adjusted Vegetation Index (MSAVI2)
  • Modified Triangular Vegetation Index (MTVI2)
  • Triangular Greenness Index (TGI)
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