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Leaf’s crop monitoring service turns satellite passes into field-level imagery. You register a field boundary, choose a satellite provider, and Leaf delivers processed, clipped images every time a new scene is available. The service produces RGB, NDVI, and NDRE composites, along with individual band images. You also get cloud coverage percentage and data coverage percentage for each image, so you can filter out unusable scenes.

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Providers

Leaf supports two satellite sources: *PlanetScope band count depends on the asset type requested. Both providers produce RGB, NDVI, and NDRE composites. Sentinel-2 data is freely available through the Copernicus program. PlanetScope requires a billing agreement, and usage is metered by area.

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How it works

  1. Create a satellite field — POST a MultiPolygon geometry to /services/satellite/api/fields. Set the providers you want (Sentinel-2, PlanetScope, or both).
  2. Leaf fetches imagery — By default, Leaf retrieves images from the last 30 days. You can set a startDate or daysBefore parameter to go further back.
  3. Continuous monitoring — The field is monitored indefinitely. Each time a satellite passes over the field, Leaf processes and clips the imagery to your boundary.
  4. Retrieve images — GET /services/satellite/api/fields/{id}/processes returns all processed images for the field, filterable by date range, cloud cover, and data coverage.
After creating a satellite field, it may take a few minutes for images to become available.

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Image outputs

For each satellite pass, Leaf produces:
  • RGB — True-color image as GeoTIFF (EPSG:4326) and PNG (EPSG:3857).
  • NDVI — Raw values as GeoTIFF, plus colorized GeoTIFF and PNGs with relative and absolute scales.
  • NDRE — Same formats as NDVI.
  • Individual bands — GeoTIFF for each spectral band at native resolution.
  • Multiband — A single GeoTIFF with all bands stacked.
PNG files are scaled up by 800% for display purposes and have no fixed resolution.

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Field size limits

  • Maximum area: 50,000 hectares (123,000 acres)
  • Maximum perimeter: 300 km (180 miles)
  • Maximum vertices: 1,500
  • Minimum inner ring area: 1 m²

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Common use cases

  • In-season crop monitoring: Register field boundaries and receive NDVI imagery on every Sentinel-2 pass to track crop health through the season.
  • High-resolution scouting: Use PlanetScope at 3-meter resolution to detect within-field variability and target scouting trips.
  • Multi-year comparison: Query historical satellite processes to compare vegetation index trends across growing seasons.

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What to do next

  • Sentinel-2 — Band details, resolution, and cloud masking for Sentinel data.
  • PlanetScope — Asset types, band details, and subscription management.
  • API Reference: Satellite — Full endpoint reference for the crop monitoring service.
Last modified on March 24, 2026