Skip to main content
Satellite Images v2 is an opt-in rendering upgrade for crop monitoring imagery. It produces sharper, smoother PNGs that match the color treatment in the Leaf dashboard, from the same satellite captures and the same underlying index values. When enabled, Leaf publishes a parallel set of v2 image assets alongside the standard ones, so nothing you rely on today changes.

​
What changed

Two parts of the display pipeline were reworked. The satellite source, capture cadence, and raw index values are unchanged.
  • Cubic resampling. Index rasters arrive at a fixed ground resolution (10 m per pixel for Sentinel-2). Standard PNGs enlarge those pixels with nearest-neighbor sampling, which shows as hard squares. Every v2 PNG uses cubic resampling instead, blending between pixel values for a continuous surface.
  • Field-relative color that matches the dashboard. The v2 relative and colorized outputs anchor the color ramp to the 2nd–98th percentile of the field’s values, rather than the absolute image minimum and maximum, so a few extreme pixels no longer flatten the contrast. They use the same red → amber → green palette as the Leaf web dashboard, so your API imagery and the dashboard line up.
Current versus Leaf v2 NDVI rendering of the same field Zoomed to a high-variability area, the difference is clearest — the current rendering shows each 10 m pixel as a hard square, while v2 resolves the same values as a smooth gradient: Zoom comparison of blocky current pixels versus smooth v2 gradient
v2 is display only. The raw NDVI.tif and NDRE.tif values, the individual band GeoTIFFs, and every standard asset and its URL are unchanged. Analysis pipelines that read the raw rasters see identical numbers.

​
Enabling v2

v2 is controlled by the satelliteImagesV2 configuration flag, set at the API owner level. It defaults to false. Base URL: https://api.withleaf.io/services/config/api
See the Configuration Reference for the property and the Configuration API for full endpoint details.
Enabling v2 applies to new satellite captures going forward. It does not backfill existing processes. To generate v2 assets for a capture you already have, reprocess that satellite process.

​
v2 image outputs

When satelliteImagesV2 is enabled, each new pass produces these assets in addition to the standard ones. Filenames carry a _v2 suffix. The raw NDVI.tif, NDRE.tif, individual band GeoTIFFs, and multi_band.tif are shared by both renderings — there are no _v2 raster values.

​
Selecting v2 images

Retrieve images the same way as today, through GET /services/satellite/api/fields/{id}/processes. Each process lists its available files. When v2 is enabled, the _v2 assets appear in that same file list alongside the standard names. Point your application at the _v2 filename for the view you want — for example NDVI_v2.png in place of NDVI.png. Because the assets are parallel, you can enable v2, compare the two side by side on real fields, and switch your application over when you’re ready, with no disruption to the standard outputs in the meantime.

​
What to do next

Last modified on September 29, 2026