IrriWatch Thermal Satellite Irrigation Intelligence

Hydrosat provides thermal infrared satellite data and analytics to governments, companies and partners, with offices in Washington, DC and Carlsbad, California, plus Luxembourg and Wageningen in Europe. It builds its own thermal satellites and uses them to detect crop water stress and other risks earlier than conventional optical indices; in 2023 it acquired IrriWatch, an irrigation analytics service based on more than 30 years of research.

IrriWatch turns thermal and optical satellite imagery, crop, soil and weather information into field and regional water intelligence. The Advisor module gives growers daily 10 m field insights, crop water stress alerts, field ranking and irrigation planning up to 7 days ahead. Tracking monitors applied and consumed water from field to basin, and Performance benchmarks irrigation efficiency and water productivity across schemes with history back to 2018. It is used by farms, irrigation teams, water boards and agribusinesses.

• Advisor: daily 10 m field insights with crop water stress alerts and field ranking.
• Irrigation planning: forecasts irrigation needs up to 7 days ahead.
• Tracking: monitors applied and consumed water from field to basin.
• Performance: benchmarks adequacy, efficiency, reliability, equity and water productivity across regions.
• Historical insights: data back to 2018 with exports for offline analysis and audits.
• Own thermal satellites: proprietary thermal infrared constellation with the Discovery platform and documented data access.

• Coffee and durian growers in the Central Highlands scheduling irrigation during the dry season to reduce water use.
• Irrigation management companies and provincial water authorities in the Mekong Delta monitoring water use during drought and salinity events.
• Sugarcane and fruit plantations benchmarking water productivity across estates.

• Earlier detection of crop water stress from thermal imagery, which the company says flags risk 2+ weeks earlier.
• Daily, field-level irrigation scheduling up to 7 days ahead, helping save water and energy.
• Basin-scale tracking of applied and consumed water for allocation decisions and regulatory reporting.
• Benchmarking of irrigation adequacy, efficiency and water productivity across fields and districts over 10+ years.

Water scarcity, saline intrusion and more frequent droughts are pushing growers and water authorities to manage irrigation with data rather than fixed schedules. Thermal satellite data, which measures crop temperature and evapotranspiration directly, is a fast-growing segment of Earth observation and is increasingly paired with optical imagery for precision irrigation in Asia.

Offices in Washington, DC, Carlsbad (California), Luxembourg and Wageningen (Netherlands). Acquired IrriWatch in June 2023, won a NOAA contract in 2024, and signed agreements with Kazakhstan's Gharysh Sapary in 2026. The company reports serving 60+ countries; partner logos include Bayer, SupPlant and NutraDrip.