Satellite imagery lets you see crop condition across every subscribed field without walking it, so you can find problem areas early and send scouts straight to them. FarmQA offers imagery from two providers, Planet and Sentinel-2. This article explains how they differ so you can pick the one that fits how you use imagery. It has no steps. The articles linked below cover setup and each imagery layer.
Planet and Sentinel at a glance
| Planet | Sentinel-2 | |
|---|---|---|
| Resolution | 3 m per pixel | 10 m per pixel |
| How often a new image can arrive | Near-daily | Every few days |
| Imagery layers | True color, NDVI, MSAVI, GNDVI, NDRE, red-edge band, red band | Same layers as Planet |
| Historical imagery | Up to 5 years back | Up to 5 years back |
| Pricing | Contact your FarmQA account manager | Contact your FarmQA account manager |
Cloud cover limits both providers. Neither can see through clouds, so in a cloudy stretch you get fewer usable images than the schedule above suggests.
Which one fits your operation
Choose Planet when you need detail or timing. At 3 m, Planet shows variation inside a field, such as a wet spot, a planter skip, or a drowned-out corner, that a 10 m pixel blends together. Near-daily imagery also means you're more likely to get a clear image in the window right after a storm, a hail event, or an application.
Choose Sentinel-2 when you need broad coverage at a lower cost per acre. At 10 m, Sentinel-2 shows field-scale patterns clearly and works well for tracking crop progress across many acres through the season.
What you can do with imagery
Once a field is subscribed, new images load onto it automatically all season. You can:
- View every image layer on the field map, on web and mobile.
- Build management zones from imagery in Zone Designer, then use those zones to write prescriptions. See Zone Designer overview.
- Track imagery metrics, such as average NDVI or NDRE, over time in Analytics. See FarmQA Analytics: creating a new metric.
- Download images for use outside FarmQA. See Downloading map layer images.
Enterprise Administrators, Agronomists, Technician+, Technicians, Soil Samplers, and Operators can view and download imagery.
How a subscription works
You buy a set number of acres from Planet, Sentinel-2, or both. An Enterprise Administrator then chooses which fields use those acres and which imagery layers load. FarmQA checks for new images on its own, and a newly subscribed field usually shows its first imagery within 24 hours. When you subscribe, you can also pull in up to 5 years of past imagery for that field.
To set up your subscription, see Set up your imagery subscription. For what each layer shows and when in the season it's most useful, see Satellite imagery layers.