The OpenWeather team announces Weather Maps 2.0, where you can now work not only with current weather layers but also with historical and forecast maps!

The Dashboard for Agricultural Monitoring is a service created for visual demonstration of satellite data (NDVI) and weather data (forecast, historical and accumulated parameters), which you can get for your area of interest (that is, for your polygons).

In the past, it was not easy to work with satellite imagery and use the images in applications. You had to have deep expertise in the satellite imagery area and have access to massive computing capacity. Fortunately, now this data is available in a much easier way through our APIs.

When you work with single-channel images, you need to focus in depth on a narrow range of values and clearly evaluate the researched data.

If you want to download Sentinel-2 satellite data, you’ve come to the right place! Our Satellite Images API was created exactly for this purpose.

This article is a step-by-step description of how to work with polygons using our QueryBuilder and Agro API instruments. Part 1 explained how to use your personal OpenWeather account – be sure to set it up before starting to read this article.

1) Satellite data search.
1.1. Selection of suppliers or distributors of satellite data.
1.2. Data search in archives. Search is based on the following criteria: date of satellite imagery, percentage cloud coverage, type of satellite imagery system, level of data preprocessing, geographical area of interest (AOI).

This April, OpenWeather presented a brand new product, the Agro API, which was intended to change the working process of agricultural applications. Our algorithms for collecting and processing satellite scenes and weather data, combined with the simplified delivery of prepared products to the end user, make this product wholly unique and very convenient.

In this article, we would like to look in more detail at one of the essential elements of our Agro API: the Satellite Images API. The Satellite images API is the dataset from the Landsat 8 and Sentinel-2 satellites on the basis of which we calculate quantitative indices, such as NDVI, EVI and others, and from which we also obtain ready-made images of territories in True and False colour, NDVI and EVI.

We provide historical data as well as satellite images that are as up to date as possible (allowing for the data source and cloud cover) for the very nearest time period. These images are available to all account users, including those who are using the free package. For non-paying users, the range for satellite data requests is 6 days. For the paid service, it is one year. You can learn more about our pricing plans here.

Please note that there are limits to the total area for which you can request data, and to the number of requests that you can make per minute. However, should you exceed these figures, we will continue to provide you with the data you need so that your work is not affected and your customers will not run and hide!*

You can find all the details and the full set of the Agro API‘s capabilities here.

As always, we would be glad to hear your comments and suggestions regarding our product!

* At the end of your billing month, we will provide you with a separate bill for any additional area, beyond the tariff limits, for which you requested data.

Objectives

As farms mainly consist of crop fields, which can be hundreds of acres in size, much time and a great deal of resources are demanded of farmers in obtaining an accurate picture of the overall condition of these farms.

Drying out of plants or, conversely, an excess of moisture and a rise in the number of pests: these can all take their toll on the size and quality of the harvest and demand a rapid response. There are also such problems as the danger of overusing fertilisers, which poses a threat not only in terms of extra costs but also in that it is harmful to the environment and primarily to the health of farmers themselves.

To maximise harvests, constant monitoring is required throughout the season; and it is not easy finding the time to keep up with changes for each crop, not to mention monitoring the condition of every single acre. When deciding on long-term plans, a comparative analysis has to be carried out for both the usual course of the seasonal cycle and, in particular, any crises that have arisen.

To assess the current situation and to keep track of changes compared with preceding seasons and with the condition of neighbouring fields, accurate information on both the past and the present is needed as well as future forecasts that are as precise as possible.

Solutions

There are currently numerous services that help with managing farms for any acreage: checking boundaries and nutrient and moisture intake, monitoring the negative effects of weather conditions and diseases, and controlling pest numbers. And this can all be done without having to visit the fields, just by using a phone or tablet screen or a PC.

It is exactly to provide these services that OpenWeather offers a wide range of APIs for different weather and satellite data combined in the one product, the Agro API, with universal and simple syntax.