Once you've added your field, you'll see a satellite map of the field with a biomass layer overlaid.

You can choose from two types of satellite maps to view your field. Click on the map layer tile in the bottom right corner of the field map and choose between base map and field view.

Read here about the different biomass maps.

Base map

This high resolution but outdated earth map is useful for identifying field boundaries when adding your fields to Atfarm. The base map allows you to navigate around fields and view field boundaries in high resolution. This is particularly useful for identifying streams, roads etc.

The imagery for the base map is provided by Mapbox. They update their imagery every few years. Therefore, the field boundaries you see on the base map may differ from the current boundaries of your fields. So if your uploaded field boundaries don't match the base map, this isn't an error.

We don't use the base map to monitor your crops and give recommendations, but we do use satellite images, updated every three to five days, which you can find in the field view.

Field view

These low-resolution but up-to-date satellite images are useful for checking field conditions. The satellite images are taken every three to five days by the Sentinel-2 A and B satellites of the European Space Agency's Copernicus programme and uploaded to Atfarm. Sentinel-2 imagery captures the red edge of light, making it ideal for detecting changes in vegetation long before the human eye would notice any anomalies.

You can access up to two years of images in the timeline below the map and see how your field has grown.

Clouds in the images can be easily detected using the cloud detection algorithm. Cloudy satellite imagery is hidden in the timeline by default, as the biomass layers can't be applied to them and therefore Variable N-Rate Application maps can't be created with such imagery. However, you can still view cloudy satellite images and check that they're indeed cloudy. If the image is indeed cloud-free, it can be used to create application maps.