The NASA-ISRO Synthetic Aperture Radar (NISAR) mission is set to deploy a satellite that will provide farmers with a powerful data stream that could help them optimize planting and harvesting crops year round. It achieves this by monitoring the growth of crops, generating crucial insights on how to time plantings, adjusting irrigation schedules, and doing so in the most time efficient ways.
NISAR leverages synthetic aperture radar to discern the physical characteristics of crops, as well as the moisture content of the plants and the soil they grow in. The satellite is powerful enough to see small plots of farmland, and provide frequent coverage of agricultural regions. Put simply, it is capable of imaging nearly all of Earth’s land twice every 12 days and can resolve plots down to 30 feet wide.
Another superpower of NISAR is that when its measurements are integrated with traditional satellite observations, especially vegetation health indexes, it will significantly enhance crop information,” said Brad Doorn, who oversees NASA’s water resources and agriculture research program.
Source - https://www.techeblog.com
