How do I use Satellite Imagery in Field360 Studio?

Requirements:

• For crop year 2021, if you enroll on web in Granular Agronomy + Nitrogen, the field is eligible to be subscribed for Imagery. The CSA then needs to subscribe the crop zone in F360 to view imagery for customers interested in that service.

Note:  For fields not enrolled in Nitrogen or Insights, CSAs will be invoiced for any saved images, even if those images are saved and deleted.

Process:

Call support to purchase acres: 

1. Contact Granular Agronomy support at 1.833.933.1733 to gain purchased acres. Please be ready with the number of acres you plan to subscribe.

Subscribe a crop zone to access the relevant imagery:

1. From the Resources tree, select the crop zone that you want to enroll.
2. Select Layers | Satellite Imagery to display the Satellite Imagery dialog.
3. Click Subscribe CropZone (highlighted below) to send a message to the server to enroll the crop zone.

• Once enrolled, refresh the database (select View | Refresh Grower or press F5).
• The Satellite Imagery window shows thumbnails of the images.

Imagery Options:

Access these options using the icons at the top of the Satellite Imagery window or right click the crop zone and select an option from the menu.

View Properties

1. Select an image from the Satellite Imagery window.
2. Click the Properties icon .

1. Click OK to close the Preview window.

Review Products

1. Select how you want to review the images.

• For an individual thumbnail, click the Review Products icon  to pop up a window showing a side-by-side comparison of both the CHI and True Color image for the date selected.

• For all images, choose either Crop Health Index or True Color in the Product drop-down.

1. When finished reviewing the comparison, close the pop-up window.

Animation

This plays through the images of a crop zone in chronological order to help you view the progress/change in the field over time.

1. Choose how many images you want to animate.

• To animate all images, click the icon  to display a window that loads all of the available images from the selected crop zone. Use the Play/Pause button on the window to watch and/or pause the animation.
• For a specific date range, select the newest image thumbnail from the Satellite Imagery window.  Then, right-click on the oldest image thumbnail and select Animate. The animation displays for the timeframe between the two selected images.

1. Use the Play/Pause button to view image progression.

• Click the Play button to start the animation. The button turns to "Pause" if you want to temporarily halt the animation. There is also a progress bar to show you where you are in the animation.
• The text in the middle of the progress bar shows the date of the image currently on the screen. When the progress bar is complete, the Pause button returns to "Play" and the animation is halted at 100% complete, which is the last available/selected image.

Note: You can hover over the progress bar, and a label attached to the cursor indicates the date of the image you would get if you clicked on the progress bar

Compare Imagery

Note: To compare images, you will be prompted to subscribe the selected crop zone. Click Yes on the Subscribe Crop Zone dialog.

Access the Compare feature using one of the following methods:

• Select an image from the Satellite Imagery window and then click the Compare Imagery icon , and then select another image to compare
• Note: With this selection method, the Compare Imagery icon remains enabled until you click it again to disable it.
• Select an image from the Satellite Imagery window then hold the CTRL key while you select another image to compare.
• Select an image from the Satellite Imagery window, and then right-click another image. Choose Compare from the menu. 

1. The Comparison pop up displays the dates of the two selected images included in the comparison and a view of the data.

The theme in the Comparison pop up moves from Green (better) to White (little or no change) to Red (worse).

Creating a Composite

This creates a single image that is a collection of images from a specified date range.

1. Click the Composite icon  to launch the Composite window. Within this window, you can set the:

• Date range - If you were selected on an image in the Satellite Imagery window, the date of the image is automatically used as the End Date, and the Start Date is seven days prior.
• Max cloud cover percentage - the default is 25%. 
• Composite method - the default is your last selection; however, there are some factors to consider:
• If you are compositing imagery around the green-up time, your best pick is Mean NDVI. Max NDVI in this interval will saturate the imagery and is less informative.
• If you are compositing around reproductive time, the Max NDVI can be more informative, which captures best-health during the grain-filling period.
• During dry-down time, the best pick is Mean NDVI, since Max NDVI does not add the necessary variation.

1. Click Preview to view the composite image within the window. You can adjust dates, cloud cover, and composite method as much as needed and click Preview again to see an updated composite.

Import Imagery

This allows you to import the selected image as a layer under the crop zone. 

Note: Only Crop Health Index images can be imported.  For fields not enrolled in Nitrogen or Insights, CSAs will be invoiced for any saved images, even if those images are saved and deleted.  

1. Select an image from the Satellite Imagery window and click the Import Imagery icon .
2. An imagery layer is generated under the crop zone selected in the Resources tree.

Optionally, click to import Imagery via the ADS server.

Contouring the Imagery Layer

Contouring a layer gives more flowing, unique-sized breaks instead of small same-sized cells. It essentially creates zones that can later be used to create recommendations.

1. Once imagery displays as a layer in the Resources tree, select Tools | Surface Layer.
2. Mark the Save Contour Layers check box.
3. Enter your Surface parameters to create a surfaced layer with separated polygons to use in prescriptions.