I’ve heard that satellite data is used more and more these days. But I thought it was mostly to check if the soil’s okay, or if there’s flooding, fires, swampy areas. How do satellites even know that certain crops need fertilizer while others are doing just fine?

Good question but I don’t know. You probably need to ask an agronomist who actually knows. I think they’ve got some sensors and tools for measuring that stuff.

Satellites can’t exactly tell where to add fertilizers and where not to, but they can track vegetation activity - where it’s normal, where it’s higher, and where it’s lower. Now satellite data is fed into special platforms, kind of like all-in-one soft. For example, EOSDA Crop Monitoring uses extra data layers that include soil condition info, weather data, and previous fertilizer treatments. Basically, that helps figure out what needs to be done right now to keep crop yield up.