Satellite Crop Monitoring API for Agriculture
Vegetation health analysis and crop monitoring through satellite imagery, delivered as a simple API.
Why is satellite monitoring important for agriculture?
Satellite imagery provides objective, consistent measurement of crop health across entire growing regions. Unlike ground-based observation, satellite monitoring scales to millions of hectares without additional labour. It detects stress conditions before they become visible to the human eye, enabling early intervention.
Agricultural enterprises, commodity traders, insurers, and supply chain managers all require timely vegetation intelligence. Traditional approaches demand GIS expertise, satellite data subscriptions, and custom processing pipelines—significant barriers for most organisations.
How does Universr solve this?
Universr provides crop health metrics through a single API call. Send field coordinates and receive NDVI values, vegetation health assessments, and change detection alerts. The platform handles satellite data acquisition, atmospheric correction, and cloud masking automatically.
Sentinel-2 imagery at 10-metre resolution forms the primary data source, with a 5-day global revisit time ensuring regular updates throughout the growing season. Historical archives enable year-over-year comparisons and trend analysis.
What agricultural insights can you query?
- Current vegetation health and NDVI values for any field
- Drought stress and water deficiency indicators
- Crop growth stage estimation
- Yield forecasting based on vegetation vigor
- Compliance monitoring for sustainable sourcing programs
- Change detection for deforestation and land clearing
What does an example query look like?
POST /api/v1/query
{
"lat": -33.8688,
"lon": 151.2093,
"question": "What is the current crop health at this location?"
}Response
{
"answer": "Vegetation health is good (NDVI 0.62). Active crop growth detected consistent with mid-season wheat. No stress indicators present.",
"evidence": {
"satellite": "Sentinel-2",
"acquisition_date": "2026-05-12",
"ndvi": 0.62,
"confidence": 0.91
}
}How does temporal resolution support crop monitoring?
Sentinel-2 revisits every location on Earth every 5 days, providing frequent updates throughout critical growth stages. According to the European Space Agency, this temporal resolution enables detection of rapid changes in vegetation condition, essential for irrigation management and pest response.
Source
European Space Agency (ESA). Sentinel-2 Mission Guide. sentinel.esa.int
Frequently asked questions
How does Universr calculate NDVI?
Universr uses Sentinel-2 multispectral imagery to calculate NDVI from the red (Band 4) and near-infrared (Band 8) bands. The formula is (NIR - Red) / (NIR + Red). Values range from -1 to 1, with healthy vegetation typically showing values above 0.4.
Can I monitor multiple fields with a single API call?
Yes. The monitoring endpoint accepts polygon geometries defining field boundaries. You can register multiple fields and receive aggregated health metrics for each, along with webhook alerts when significant changes occur.
How accurate is crop health detection?
Accuracy depends on crop type, growth stage, and atmospheric conditions. Sentinel-2 provides 10-metre spatial resolution. Universr AI models are calibrated against ground truth datasets and provide confidence scores with each response. Cloud-free imagery is automatically selected.