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Satellite down link characteristics.

If 100 satellites are used for image gathering, with down links of bits per second, we can transmit images per second, or about images per day. Each grid point will be sampled approximately once every three to four months.

A typical wheat farm ( acres or square meters) consists of grid points. Thus we would collect, on average, 3,668 images per day that pertain to the entire farm. In order to properly determine the state of the crops, it will be necessary to look at samples at different times during the day. Thus, the data we will have available for this farm is the equivalent of approximately grid points sampled once every four hours, and from this data we are to determine the health of a field of 10,000 acres.


gcf@npac.syr.edu