Two Australian companies have joined forces to massively reduce the amount of satellite information transmitted to Earth.
Queensland agtech start-up DataFarming and NSW space edge computing organisation Spiral Blue are running a trial that avoids the need to transmit raw data by processing it on board the satellite.
The trial has reduced the amount of novel data transmitted by 99 per cent and in the process has delivered savings in data storage costs and processing time for farm mapping and insights.
DataFarming co-founder Tim Neale said the trial involved mapping the amount of canola crop in New South Wales.
Mr Neale said in the past data was downloaded, stored on computers, processed for hours and then the results would be exported.
He said what they were doing now was an incredible advancement as all the work was being done in space as the satellite was flying over.
"Spiral Blue is putting next generation processors directly on the satellites," Mr Neale said.
"DataFarming has created the algorithms, which sit on that processing chip and process the data as the satellite orbits and scans the Earth at 27,000km per hour - that's 7km per second."
Mr Neale helps farmers and advisors improve their decision making by providing them with real-time insights from satellite mapping.
About 30,000 farms use DataFarming's crop monitoring tools that include real-time satellite images, rapid auto-zoning of paddocks, multi-year analysis, and variable rate application files.
"We are able to process imaging at a 10 metre-by-metre level, every five days," Mr Neale said.
"And every 10-metre pixel has eight layers of data. Already, this is an enormous volume of data, and with the improvement of resolution, soon we are going from eight bands to 150 with resolutions of some satellites now as fine as 30cm, so the data volumes are going through the roof.
"That's a huge problem from a processing point of view but also a data storage point of view."
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Mr Neale said satellites had been around for decades but it was only really in the past two years that things had ramped up.
"There was a 25 per cent increase in the number of satellites in the last year alone, so that means a lot more data than previously, as satellite resolution and timing is improving day by day," he said.
"We can see there's a problem with data volume as it is very costly to store all this information. There is also the environmental cost because of the greenhouse gas emissions of data storage."
While DataFarming and Spiral Blue's idea is poised to benefit farmers here in Australia, it could also have global impact.
Mr Neale said many agricultural industries did not have definitive numbers on how much crop was being produced.
"This could allow us to run an algorithm onboard a satellite that flies over every cropping area in the world to give us feedback on how much crops are being grown globally, literally within hours. That's a massive public good for food security and global market supply estimations," he said.
"There could also be real-time, automated detection of diseases, pests, and weeds in crops. It could be automated deforestation detection. There are a million potential uses.
"This is a huge technological advancement, and it has been made right here in Australia."
