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Spinoff story
Earth Images Enable Near-Perfect Crop Predictions
A real-world story of NASA technology finding a life beyond the mission.
About this technology
Overview
NASA has been enabling and producing constant imaging of Earth’s surface since the 1970s. One of TellusLabs’ cofounders has worked extensively—and often with NASA’s involvement or funding—with this image archive as a Boston University scientist. The Boston-based startup developed a crop prediction model that combines Earth-imaging data from satellites built at Goddard Space Flight Center with historical data, weather models, and other information. Its first product, Kernel, predicted 2016 U.S. soy crop yields with 99 percent accuracy. After a year, Telluslabs has more than 600 subscribers.