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Satellite imagery has become an increasingly practical tool for monitoring crop health across large agricultural regions. Multispectral sensors aboard orbiting satellites capture reflected light beyond the visible spectrum, including near-infrared wavelengths that healthy chlorophyll-rich vegetation reflects strongly. By comparing these readings over time, analysts can calculate vegetation indices that flag fields experiencing water stress, nutrient deficiency, or pest damage well before such problems become visible to the human eye on the ground. Farmers receiving this data can then target irrigation or fertilizer applications to specific sections of a field rather than treating the entire area uniformly, a practice known as precision agriculture. While the technology reduces waste and can improve yields, its usefulness is limited in regions with frequent cloud cover, since optical satellite sensors cannot see through clouds to capture usable imagery of the ground below.