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Agricultural Imaging Products
Determining crop health and uniformity over an entire field, can be difficult at best.  Problems apparent on the edges of a field may not be representative of what is happening in the middle of a field.  Localized problems can be easily missed if they are not in a area that is frequently visited by the grower.  Remote Sensing (RS) technology allows the health and variation of a field to be determined from high above, where an entire field can be evaluated objectively.

Some of the types of problems that can be identified: 

  • Insect Infestations and Stress
  • Invasive Species Infestations
    and Stress (Dodder)
  • Mildew
  • Seeding Variation
  • Tile Line Issues
  • Sprinkler Head Issues
  • Soil Variation (Salinity)
  • Soil Compaction

Types of Crops that Benefit from Regular Imaging:

  • Alfalfa
  • Lettuce
  • Table Grapes
  • Sugar Beets
  • Citrus
  • Onions
  • Carrots
  • Peppers
  • Wheat
  • Cotton
  • Sudan Grass
  • Melons


Color Imagery (RGB)

Color imagery is relatively easy to interpret without analysis since it looks like the kind of imagery that is commonly seen in viewers like Google maps.  Many objects can be easily identified and measured with this information.  Notice the amount of information that can be obtained from analysis even though the crop in the photo below is still very young.

rgb_ag
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False Color Infrared (CIR) Imagery

False color infrared imagery makes use of light that is invisible to the human eye. This imagery finds its primary application in agriculture since it makes healthy plants look bright red.  Problems in plants can often be identified significantly earlier with infrared imagery than with visible light.  CIR images are the basis for the majority of analysis performed by Blue Earth Imaging.

CIR_ag
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NDVI Processing

(Normalized Differential Vegetative Index)

NDVI is a processing technique that uses False Color Infrared imagery to map plant stress.  In addition, NDVI images can highlight differences in soils and can even be used to detect water.

NDVI_ag
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HD NDVI Processing

HD or High Definition NDVI imaging allows a user to focus in on growing plants.  This custom processing, unique to Blue Earth Imaging, causes plants to be highlighted, and non-living objects are suppressed.

NDVIHD_ag
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FPAR Processing

(Fraction of Photosynthetically Active Radiation)

FPAR shows the percentage of land that is covered by vegetation.  It is related to NDVI, but it allows trends to be evaluated over larger areas. FPAR is very useful in determining the overall production of a field and can be used to predict crop yield.

FPAR_ag
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Change Detection

Blue Earth Imaging's frequent flights mean that imagery from one date can be compared to imagery from another date to see how the field has changed over time.  Change detection imagery allows a farmer to quickly determine if a crop is growing uniformly or if problems exist that are causing the crop to regress.

Earlier Imaging Date (NDVI HD)   Later Imaging Date (NDVI HD)

ag_NDVIHD_SM1

ag_NDVIHD_SM2
In the earlier imaging date, higher vigor is seen in the southeast corner of the field, with areas of higher stress on the west side of the field. 
  On the later imaging date, crop vigor is much more even over the field, with areas that had shown lower vigor previously, now showing more even vigor with the rest of the field. 


In the image below, the west half of the field shows a positive increase in vigor and therefore is colored green.  In the Southeast portion of the field, vigor has not increased significantly and is colored neutral gray.  If the field had decreased in vigor, it would be colored yellow and red. 

CD_ag
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Color Variation

When the vigor of a field is relatively even, problems can often be detected by looking at how the color of the crop varies.  Color variation can be caused by variation in species, including weeds, as well as nutrient variation.  When color variation follows patterns of high stress, this can indicate low leaf cover or other problems. 

CV_ag
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Custom Processing

Blue Earth Imaging can perform many kinds of custom processing on your images as well.  We can use data gathered in the field to generate custom image processing algorithms that can help isolate specific problems.
Last Updated ( Friday, 01 January 2010 21:00 )