In this study, we present early results from a new Earth observation satellite called Tanager-1, launched by Planet Labs in 2024. Tanager-1 collects detailed information about Earth’s surface by measuring sunlight reflected off the land, water, and atmosphere in hundreds of narrow spectral bands. Our work highlights how we process radiance measured by the sensor at the top of the atmosphere to retrieve surface and atmospheric properties. This processing is done at a large scale using open-source software, and we compare the satellite data to ground-based measurements to evaluate its accuracy. We also examine how the quality of the data changes depending on the view angle of the satellite and its sensitivity mode. These findings help us better understand the strengths and limitations of how we process Tanager-1’s data and guide improvements to meet the needs of users studying ecosystems, air quality, agriculture, and other important environmental topics.