AgCam: scientific imaging from the ISS Window Observational Research Facility

The agricultural camera (AgCam) is a two-band digital imaging payload that will be operated in the pressurized Window Observational Research Facility (WORF) onboard the International Space Station. Its primary mission is to provide on-demand, high-resolution remote sensing imagery to support precision agriculture and natural resource end-users in the Upper Midwest. The major benefits of AgCam are its ability to provide 10-meter data in two spectral bands, to make map products available to end-users within 48 hours of data acquisition, and to be able to revisit any site in the Upper Midwest within 2-to-3 days throughout most of the growing season. In addition, the system will deliver map products without any per-scene cost as a service to regional end-users. AgCam is being designed, built, and tested by students at the University of North Dakota, under the supervision of faculty and staff in the John D. Odegard School of Aerospace Sciences and the School of Engineering & Mines.