Soybean field taken at 720 nm (Red-Edge) near-infrared.
Airborne remote sensing provides valuable insights into agronomic management. Leaf reflectance and leaf emittance changes in response to leaf thickness, species, canopy shape, leaf age, nutrient status, and water status. The camera systems carried aloft by the Im VII captures leaf chlorophyll data and the preferential absorption at near-infrared wavelengths.
Understanding leaf reflectance has lead to various vegetative indices for crop canopies to quantify various agronomic parameters; such as leaf area, crop cover, biomass, crop type, nutrient status, and yield. Emittance from crop canopies is a measure of leaf temperature and infrared sensors have fostered crop stress indices currently used to quantify water requirements.
Airborne remote sensing using the Im VII is a valuable agronomic tool that provides real-time, on demand information to precision agriculture consultants and producers about the status of their crops. The Im VII platform and sensors are able to achieve spatial resolution on the order of sub-meter and less with a higher spectral resolution than available by satellites. Because the Im VII can fly directly over the target field and below cloud cover, the platform is to capture higher quality images at a revisit frequency not attainable by satellites or manned aircraft.
Tags: UAV, UAS, precision agriculture, muncie, agriculture, innovation connector, airborne platform
