Since the first artificial satellite was launched, a lot of time has passed, and satellites have changed a lot in terms of characteristics and functionality. Some satellites are designed to track the Earth’s climate, others are weather monitoring satellites, others are communications satellites and more.
Mankind first appreciated the role of artificial satellites for monitoring the condition of agricultural lands, forests, and other natural resources of the Earth only a couple of years after the great space age. New sophisticated technical means were developed that made it possible to increase the quality of visual observations several times. Information was extracted both from so-called “multispectral” images in the visible (visual) spectrum and thanks to the infrared portions of the spectrum. One of the very first fields of science, where the image of the Earth surface from space was applied, was cartography. Now, satellite data has found application in many spheres of human life, including remote crop monitoring in farming.
Satellites in Weather Prediction and Climate Monitoring
Space data is a critical piece in the climate research puzzle, especially when it comes to disasters prevention. Information from satellites can help assess the extent of climate change, support the development of appropriate adaptation strategies, and contribute to assessing their effectiveness. For example, satellites allow for estimating the effects of deforestation, land use, industrial emissions, ice melting, sea level rise, average temperature changes, and other important climate and weather variables. This enables researchers to track weather patterns and their change to predict future climatic events and take actions to mitigate their impact.
Satellite Crop Monitoring in Agriculture
Remote sensing is one of the key elements of precision agriculture. Thanks to advances in technology in recent decades, remote assessment of crop conditions has become possible. Satellites now help farmers observe crops in different parts of the field, control pests/weeds more effectively, and do much more. Satellite imagery offers agricultural statistics, increased accuracy, objectivity and frequency of observations, as well as improved operational crop monitoring and yield forecasting.
EOSDA Crop Monitoring is a digital satellite data-powered precision farming tool designed by EOS Data Analytics. The company specializes in solutions and services that leverage satellite imagery analytics with the help of AI algorithms. Their crop monitoring system enables collection and analysis of different farm data a user might need, including crop health through season, growth stages, weather, field activities, soil moisture, and much more. Farmers can easily plan and track field activities, crop rotation, access each field productivity, perform VRA, and overall optimize their work to minimize resource waste and maximize yields. All thanks to availability of all necessary and reliable data in one place, enabling fast and effective decision-making.
Space-based Navigation
Satellite navigation systems are the primary means by which land, air, and sea objects can be located with ease. Using a small and reliable receiver, you can also calculate their speed, measure the distance traveled, trace further and predict the time of arrival. Modern navigation systems have greatly simplified the determination of the route and tracking of transport, including fuel control and fixation of violations of the route by the driver. A traveler does not need to study complex systems and rules of navigation using ordinary maps.
The entire navigation system is based on signals transmitted from satellites, the location of which is always known precisely — they constantly transmit this information to the ground. The distance to a satellite is determined by measuring the amount of time it takes for the signal to travel from the satellite to the radio receiver. Satellites also communicate with each other. In order to identify and decode the signal received from the satellite, a specific system of codes is used.
Satellites in Business Development
Satellite imagery is a valuable source of data across different businesses, from transportation to retail marketing or investments. For example, real-time satellite imagery can be used to estimate the number of cars at a parking lot of a store. This data could be a great insight for investment institutions in terms of analyzing the store’s revenue based on the number of customers coming there. Same data can be used to evaluate the capacity of a car manufacturer and demand for their cars based on the number of new cars parked near the factories.