Argentina's agricultural industry will soon be provided with information from two observational satellites, which are expected to aid growers in making key farm management decisions. 

Equipped with microwaves, the satellites will be used to measure soil moisture, improve fertilization strategies and help prevent the onset of disease. They will also be able to warn of potential flooding.

It is all a part of the new mission by Argentina's National Commission on Space Activities, called Saocom, or Argentine Observational Satellites with Microwave, with the launch set for 2017.

The mission's aim is to generate information on environmental variables the country, many of which will provide important for the agricultural industry.

"It's new satellite information that will be very useful and will complement other satellites to provide the most precise information on various aspects related to humidity and its dynamics on the soil," Natural Resource Research Center director Pablo Mercuri told www.freshfruitportal.com.

"It is a very complex mission - satellite missions typically work in the field of optic images that depend on solar light, but Saocom works in the range of microwaves, which means it can pierce the cloud and does not require sunlight."

He highlighted that the two satellites, Saocom 1 and Saocom 2, would be in contact with an Italian satellite system.

Each satellite will take 16 days to complete one orbit of the earth, and as such, information with global coverage will be provided every eight days.

www.freshfruitportal.com