What is Agricultural Satellite Imagery?
Agricultural satellite imagery captures images of farmland from space using sensors that detect both visible light and invisible wavelengths like near-infrared. Unlike a regular photograph, satellite imagery reveals information about plant health, soil moisture, and crop density that the human eye cannot see. Satellites equipped with multispectral sensors orbit the Earth every few days, capturing images that platforms like Keshtyaar process and deliver directly to your dashboard. This technology, once available only to large agribusinesses, is now accessible to every farmer through Keshtyaar.
How to Access Satellite Images in Keshtyaar
Accessing satellite imagery in Keshtyaar takes just a few steps. Open the Imagery page from the sidebar. Your registered fields appear on the map automatically. Click on any field to view its latest satellite image. Use the date selector to browse historical images — Keshtyaar stores months of imagery for each field. You can zoom in and out using pinch gestures on mobile or the scroll wheel on desktop. The satellite image is overlaid on your field boundary, so you can see exactly which parts of your field correspond to each area in the image.
What Vegetation Indices Are Available?
Keshtyaar provides several vegetation indices, each optimized for different purposes. NDVI (Normalized Difference Vegetation Index) is the most widely used index for general crop health monitoring. EVI (Enhanced Vegetation Index) is better for areas with dense vegetation where NDVI saturates. NDWI (Normalized Difference Water Index) highlights water content in vegetation, useful for irrigation management. SAVI (Soil-Adjusted Vegetation Index) is optimized for fields with sparse vegetation or exposed soil. You can switch between indices using the dropdown menu above the map view.
How to Compare Satellite Images Over Time
Time-based comparison is one of the most powerful features in Keshtyaar. To compare two dates, select a field and open the comparison tool from the toolbar. Choose two dates to view side by side. The split-view mode lets you drag a slider across the image to compare the same area on different dates. This reveals how your crops are developing, whether treatments are working, and where problems are emerging. For seasonal analysis, use the timeline view to see NDVI trends plotted over weeks or months — this graph shows growth curves and helps identify deviations from expected patterns.
How to Turn Satellite Data into Action
Satellite data is only valuable when it leads to action. Here is a practical workflow: Start by checking your fields weekly during the growing season. Look for spatial patterns — uniform fields are healthy, while patchy or striped patterns suggest problems. If you spot a low-NDVI zone, physically inspect that area of your field. Common causes include water pooling, nutrient deficiency, compacted soil, or pest presence. After taking corrective action (adjusting irrigation, applying fertilizer, treating pests), monitor the same area in subsequent satellite images to verify improvement. Use Keshtyaar's task management to log what you found and what you did — this creates a valuable record for future seasons.
Limitations of Satellite Imagery
While satellite imagery is powerful, understanding its limitations helps you use it effectively. Cloud cover blocks satellite sensors, so imagery may be unavailable during overcast periods. Spatial resolution means that very small features (individual plants or narrow rows) may not be distinguishable. Satellite imagery shows what is happening but not always why — ground-truthing by walking the field is still essential. Finally, imagery has a delay of 1-3 days from capture to availability in Keshtyaar due to processing time. Despite these limitations, satellite imagery provides insights that would be impossible to gather any other way across large areas.