As part of an announcement of opportunity, SkyBee data products are being disseminated to researchers for use in scientific and pre-operational development studies, following the approval of a Project Proposal by ESA and constellr. Thermal insights from constellr’s SkyBee satellites are set to support innovative research into urban heat mapping, drought assessment, environmental monitoring, and much more.

SkyBee-1 and SkyBee-2 were developed by New Space company constellr and form the HiVE constellation: a group of thermal infrared satellites currently under assessment as an ESA Third Party Mission. Launched in 2025, both satellites deliver high-resolution, space-based Land Surface Temperature (LST) data for a wide range of applications, including agriculture, climate resilience and civil security. Two data products are available to users through the current open opportunity: LSTprecision and LSTfusion.

LSTprecision is a high-precision land surface temperature data product designed for accurate, frequent thermal monitoring. Data are provided as 30 m native-resolution LST scenes (15 km x 15 km) with a temperature accuracy within 1-2 Kelvin and with extremely low thermal noise.

LSTfusion is a cloud-free, modelled output of daily LST data at 30 m resolution for 50 km × 50 km tiles. It combines the high accuracy of constellr’s constellation with the high temporal frequency of other LST data sources. LSTfusion coverage goes back to 2016.

The current announcement of opportunity forms part of an extended and successful collaboration between ESA and constellr. In 2022, the company received backing from ESA’s InCubed programme, which supports companies through co-funding, as well as technical, industrial, and business development mentoring. Shortly after, the company was announced as an emerging Copernicus Contributing Mission in 2023 and secured further backing from a number of investors.

ESA continues to support the development of the HiVE constellation. Last year, constellr secured a contract under the agency’s ScaleUp INVEST programme, through which ESA supported the launch of the second HiVE satellite, SkyBee-2.

HiVE is set to transform Europe’s thermal imaging capabilities by delivering high-resolution, global, and easy-to-understand temperature data to a wide range of users. ESA’s announcement of opportunity presents a valuable opportunity for those seeking to apply constellr’s detailed thermal data to their projects and to explore what unprecedented thermal detail can reveal about our planet.

The opportunity is open until 30 June 2026. ESA will support as many projects as possible within the available quota. Further details are available on the official announcement page.