ISRO Satellite Mission Update: New Earth Observation Data Made Available for Agriculture Monitoring

The space program of India is shifting gradually from launching satellites to practical uses which are relevant to industries such as agriculture, water management, and disaster management. The latest initiative taken by India relates to the availability of earth observation data, particularly the data collected using the NASA-ISRO Synthetic Aperture Radar (NISAR) mission.

Through its Earth Observation Data Distribution Portal called Bhoonidhi, ISRO made available the S-band Synthetic Aperture Radar data products of the NISAR mission which can be searched, visualized, and downloaded by users who have registered themselves on this portal. The available data includes the earth surface of India as well as different parts of the world.

What Is the New ISRO Earth Observation Data Update?

The latest development is particularly significant because satellite-based Earth observation can provide information about land and crops without requiring physical surveys across every agricultural area.

NISAR uses both L-band and S-band radar instruments and is designed to provide wide-swath, high-resolution observations with a 12-day repeat cycle. Because radar can collect information regardless of whether the area is covered by clouds or affected by darkness, the data can be particularly useful for monitoring agricultural land under changing weather conditions. 

ISRO has also demonstrated the use of NISAR data to generate soil-moisture products at 100-metre resolution. Soil moisture is an important indicator for understanding crop health, irrigation requirements and drought risk. 

How Can Satellite Data Help Farmers?

Satellite images can offer a much wider view of agricultural land compared to traditional field inspection methods alone. Rather than inspecting the fields one by one, satellite images can assist in identifying changes in vast agricultural zones.

The information can be utilized in order to study the condition of the agricultural lands, vegetation, soil moisture, and changes in crop growth. It would help government organizations assess crop production, monitor drought, and locate stressed agricultural zones.

ISRO has already built a well-established tradition in the use of remote sensing technologies in agriculture. There are various programs run by ISRO in the sphere of earth observation for crop acreage and production, drought, and agriculture monitoring.

Why Soil Moisture Data Matters

One of the most significant applications of the data from the new satellites in agriculture will be the monitoring of soil moisture.

Soil moisture can be used as an indicator of the presence of water in the soil available to the plants. Insufficient moisture may be an indication of drought or requirement for irrigation, while excess moisture may be an indication of waterlogging in agriculture.

According to ISRO, the soil moisture products from the NISAR satellite can provide reliable estimates in different agroclimatic zones such as irrigated plains, rainfed agricultural lands, semi-arid areas and areas with high rainfall.

NISAR’s Role in Agriculture Monitoring

NISAR satellite mission by NASA-ISRO is specifically significant due to its Synthetic Aperture Radar technology. The radar observations can detect variations in Earth’s surface and vegetation, which will be beneficial for observing agricultural landscapes.

NISAR has proved its ability to observe agriculture areas, vegetation and water surfaces by ISRO. An image published by ISRO depicts NISAR S-band observations in Nagapattinam district of Tamil Nadu state, which has depicted agricultural areas, wetlands, mangroves, and coastal lagoons.

Another NISAR data set was taken over an agriculture area in Idaho, which has depicted variations in radar backscattering for cultivation purposes.

What Does “Data Made Available” Actually Mean?

The development does not imply that all farmers will be suddenly given an image of their own fields on their phones using satellites.

Rather, ISRO is now providing the processed Earth observation datasets using their infrastructure for distribution of data. Users who are registered can use parameters like location, acquisition period and product type to locate the required products and download the products via Bhoonidhi.

Departments in government, researchers, agricultural technology firms, and other authorized users can then utilize this data to develop applications suitable for agriculture.

The difference is important because it is at the stage when raw or processed satellite data is useful when used along with field data, meteorological data, crop models, etc.

From Satellite Images to Crop Forecasts

Satellite information can also be helpful in estimating the amount of planting that has occurred with respect to a specific crop and their development during the growing season.

The ISRO agricultural programs have made use of the Earth observation data for the monitoring of crop sowing and harvesting activities. The recently released annual report of ISRO talks about the use of satellite data along with weather information and machine learning in the case of crop area and yield estimation.

The existing work by ISRO in relation to the EOS-06 has helped them monitor the progress of sowing and harvesting.

How This Could Help With Drought and Crop Loss

The usefulness of agriculture monitoring increases greatly when there is severe weather impacting agriculture.

Satellite observation will assist the authorities to assess drought conditions, vegetation change, and determine the size of the area impacted agriculturally. Radar imagery may be used to aid flood and hydrological assessment where the traditional optical imaging is restricted by clouds.

ISRO’s agriculture projects utilize EO data for drought monitoring and policy making by the government while the annual report of ISRO mentions the use of SAR data in flood yield loss factor assessment.

What It Means for Indian Agriculture

The more important implication behind this trend is the growing synergy between space technology and economic activities.

The area covered by agriculture in India is in the millions of hectares, and it spans across various climatic zones and methods of farming. Manual surveys for such a vast region may prove to be very laborious.

However, using the satellite for surveillance becomes an easier method of studying the conditions prevailing in agriculture over large areas. Together with the climate data and machine learning, it can facilitate quicker decision making in agriculture.

The efforts made by ISRO towards this end, like the initiative called MahaAgritech in the state of Maharashtra, can be considered as an example of this integration of satellite data with climate data.

What Happens Next?

The significance of the new satellite data release will, however, depend on how successfully the scientific community, government agencies, and agricultural technology providers transform satellite observations into practical services.

The technology can provide useful data, but not everything that affects the operation of a farm can be known just from satellite data. There is a need for additional information such as ground level observations, types of crops grown, climate, and farming practices.

The actual advantage of the technology will be achieved when all this information is combined.

Conclusion

ISRO’s growing Earth observation data ecosystem represents yet another move in India’s quest to use space technology for solving earthly problems.

Given the fact that NISAR data is currently being released using Bhoonidhi, while satellite derived products have applications in fields like soil moisture, crop monitoring, agricultural mapping, and drought detection, the relevance of space technology to the agricultural sector of India is growing.

What is more important than the release of yet another satellite dataset is the conversion of information collected several hundreds of kilometers away from Earth into something which can be used for making better decisions by governments, researchers, and agriculture community. 

India’s satellites are gradually becoming instruments for the farms.

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