Satellite imaging and AI could merge to aid UK farmers

A new service set for launch in the UK that could revolutionise the way satellite imaging is used in agriculture has been announced by UK tech firms Origin Digital and Aspia Space.

The "ClearSky" service is being targeted towards farmers, and can supposedly present a view of a field from orbit as if there were no clouds blocking the view using radar inputs optimised via artificial intelligence.

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The feed can allegedly provide data every six days to allow them to micromanage crop development regardless of outside conditions, whatever the weather, reportedly significantly faster than other types of imagery, which could take up to several weeks for cloud-free views.

The service merges Origin's Contour platform with Aspia AI and algorithms. Should it work as intended, it could boost crop yields and quality.

“This is a hugely exciting development because it adds the ingredient of dependable regularity that’s missing in traditional imagery services. This reliability will give UK farmers a substantial new advantage in sustainably optimising their yield and input use", Madhumita Mund Rao, Head of Data at Origin Digital, said in a statement.

At any given time an average of 67% of the Earth is covered by clouds, so precision agriculture systems that rely on getting clear satellite imagery at the right time have historically struggled to deliver on their high potential value.

"ClearSky eliminates that struggle by guaranteeing the consistent regularity these systems need to deliver results, enabling farmers to fully optimise their fertiliser use for example and helping both their wallets and the planet", she added.

“Aspia’s technology unlocks Earth observation imaging data and intelligence that would have otherwise been lost", Aspia co-founder Jim Geach said in a statement.

The firm claims it could capture at least four times the number of cloud-free images per year than other types of satellite imaging.

"ClearSky uses radar inputs, which penetrate cloud but are challenging to interpret, to derive imagery across the visible and short wave infrared spectrum. This means that even in the presence of 100% cloud cover, we can deliver regular, reliable, and consistent cloud-free images that are easily understood and can be analysed in exactly the same way as regular optical imagery.

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“It was developed using the idea that the way radio and microwaves behave when they hit surface features - such as crops - is correlated, albeit in a highly complex way, with the way that optical light waves interact with those same features.

"Using AI to unpick this correlation means that ClearSky can predict cloud-free imagery with no optical inputs without a loss of accuracy over long periods of time without clear optical images. That makes it a true game-changer", he added.

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