Botany from Space

Sentinel 2

Sentinel-2 is a polar-orbiting, multispectral high-resolution imaging mission for land monitoring to provide, for example, imagery of vegetation, soil and water cover, inland waterways and coastal areas. ...

Sentinel 2 is sending beatiful pictures to planet earth. You can see them here:
http://www.esa.int/spaceinimages/Missions/Sentinel-2

you can read more -here-

What can Sentinel 2do?

Description: Sentinel-2 is the first optical Earth observation mission of its kind to include three bands in the ‘red edge’, which provide key information on the state of vegetation. In this image from 6 July 2015 acquired near Toulouse, France, the satellite’s multispectral instrument was able to discriminate between two types of crops: sunflower (in orange) and maize (in yellow).

source http://www.esa.int/spaceinimages/Images/2015/07/Sentinel-2_for_agriculture

More about Sentinel 2

Sentinel 2

In fact, Sentinel-2 is the first optical Earth observation mission of its kind to include three bands in the ‘red edge’, which provide key information on vegetation state.

Sentinel-2 is designed to provide images that can be used to distinguish between different crop types as well as data on numerous plant indices, such as leaf area index, leaf chlorophyll content and leaf water content – all of which are essential to accurately monitor plant growth.

This kind of information will help informed decisions to be made – whether they are about deciding how much water or fertiliser is needed for a maximum harvest or for forming strategies to address climate change.

While this has obvious economic benefits, this kind of information is also important for developing countries where food security is an issue