Satellite Imagery Helps Hemp Farmers

While humans have been fascinated with the stars since the beginning of time, Azar suggests that rather than looking up, with today’s satellite technology, farmers can actually look down for better insights. Whether using drones, airplanes, or satellites, images retrieved from above can help farmers with a wide variety of problems and questions.

Azar uses his experience and knowledge from his studies all around the world. From crop maintenance and information gathering to fire control and defense, satellite images provide detailed information for a wide range of industries. Agricultural satellite images can help farmers of all types of crops to gain in-depth data about their outdoor crops.

While much of the data can be retrieved at no cost, Azar reminds that, like baking a cake, just because you have the right ingredients doesn’t necessarily mean you have the instructions. This is where his expertise provides value to his clients. Planetary Remote Sensing can use data from a plethora of sources to offer cannabis and hemp farmers extremely detailed information about their fields down to 30cm in detail.

“Remote sensing is about the electromagnetic spectrum,” Azar explains in the video. Humans can only see in a specific range, naturally. However, through technology development, humans can see beyond what the eye can see. “Everything in the universe is about the electromagnetic spectrum,” he added.

In agriculture, sunshine is necessary for all crops; much of the light is absorbed by the plants, while the rest is reflected back to space. Satellites collect this reflection data, and researchers can assess the conditions of the fields by analyzing this data. In the podcast, Azar points out how detailed the data is and how they can differentiate between crops even down to the type of grapes are being grown in various segments of a vineyard. He suggests that the same could be done in the hemp industry to determine crop health, as well as neighboring cultivars, to stay ahead of the competition.

Hemp Applications

• Check for Missing Plants
• Check Canopy Volume
• Check Crop Health
• Check Crop Stress
• Monitor Crop Water Content
• Build Models for Yield Estimation

Learn more about the incredible possibilities of satellite imagery by watching this episode of Cultivate Cannabis Knowledge with Genifer Murray and Ramin Azar of Planetary Remote Sensing. Prefer to listen? Follow us on Spotify!