The use of remote sensing in the field of agriculture.

Agriculture plays a dominant role in economies of both developed and undeveloped countries. Whether agriculture represents a substantial trading industry for an economically strong country or simply sustenance for a hungry, overpopulated one, it plays a significant role in almost every nation. The production of food is important to everyone and producing food in a cost-effective manner is the goal of every farmer, large-scale farm manager and regional agricultural agency. A farmer needs to be informed to be efficient, and that includes having the knowledge and information products to forge a viable strategy for farming operations. These tools will help him understand the health of his crop, extent of infestation or stress damage, or potential yield and soil conditions. Commodity brokers are also very interested in how well farms are producing, as yield (both quantity and quality) estimates for all products control price and worldwide trading. When farmers or ranchers observe their fields or pastures to assess their condition without physically touching them, it is a form of remote sensing. Observing the colors of leaves or the overall appearances of plants can determine the plant's condition. Remotely sensed images taken from satellites and aircraft provide a means to assess field conditions without physically touching them from a point of view high above the field. The use of remote sensing for data gathering, allied to the introduction of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) as a powerful tool to process that data in conjunction with information collected using traditional field techniques helps overcome traditional data volume constraints. Remotely sensed data permits the preparation of base, terrain evaluation, land use classification and land degradation maps. Agriculture and associated vegetative phenomena are dynamic; a correct appraisal of conditions at any time is essential for forecasting trends and patterns in land cover, processes and yield/biomass. Remote sensing involves the measurement of energy that I reflected or emitted from objects without coming into contact with the objects. Satellite and airborne images are used as mapping tools to classify crops, examine their health and viability, and monitor farming practices. Agricultural applications of remote sensing include crop type classification, crop condition assessment, crop yield estimation, mapping of

soil characteristics, mapping of soil management practices and compliance monitoring (farming practices). Most remote sensors see the same visible wavelengths of light that are seen by the human eye, although in most cases remote sensors can also detect energy from wavelengths that are undetectable to the human eye. The remote view of the sensor and the ability to store, analyze, and display the sensed data on field maps are what make remote sensing a potentially important tool for agricultural producers. Agricultural remote sensing is not new and dates back to the 1950s, but recent technological advances have made the benefits of remote sensing accessible to most agricultural producers. The basic principles of remote sensing with satellites and aircraft are similar to visual observations. Energy in the form of light waves travels from the sun to Earth. Light waves travel similarly to waves traveling across a lake. The distance from the peak of one wave to the peak of the next wave is the wavelength. Energy from sunlight is called the electromagnetic spectrum. The wavelengths used in most agricultural remote sensing applications cover only a small region of the electromagnetic spectrum. Wavelengths are measured in micrometers (m) or nanometers (nm). One um is about .00003937 inch and 1 m equals 1,000 nm. The visible region of the electromagnetic spectrum is from about 400 nm to about 700 nm. The green color associated with plant vigor has a wavelength that centers near 500 nm. Wavelengths longer than those in the visible region and up to about 25 m are in the infra red region. The infrared region nearest to that of the visible region is the near infrared (NIR) region. Both the visible and infrared regions are used in agricultural remote sensing. When electromagnetic energy from the sun strikes plants, three things can happen. Depending upon the wavelength of the energy and characteristics of individual plants, the energy will be reflected, absorbed, or transmitted. Reflected energy bounces off leaves and is readily identified by human eyes as the green color of plants. A plant looks green because the chlorophyll in the leaves absorbs much of the energy in the visible wavelengths and the green color is reflected. Sunlight that is not reflected or absorbed is transmitted through the leaves to the ground.

Interactions between reflected, absorbed, and transmitted energy can be detected by remote sensing. The differences in leaf colors, textures, shapes or even how the leaves are attached to plants, determine how much energy will be reflected, absorbed or transmitted. The relationship between reflected, absorbed and transmitted energy is used to determine spectral signatures of individual plants. Spectral signatures are unique to plant species. Remote sensing is used to identify stressed areas in fields by first establishing the spectral signatures of healthy plants. The spectral signatures of stressed plants appear altered from those of healthy plants. There are several types of remote sensing systems used in agriculture but the most common is a passive system that senses the electromagnetic energy reflected from plants. The sun is the most common source of energy for passive systems. Passive system sensors can be mounted on satellites, manned or unmanned aircraft, or directly on farm equipment. There are several factors to consider when choosing a remote sensing system for a particular application, including spatial resolution, spectral resolution, radiometric resolution, and temporal resolution. Spatial resolution refers to the size of the smallest object that can be detected in an image. The basic unit in an image is called a pixel. One-meter spatial resolution means each pixel image represents an area of one square meter. The smaller an area represented by one pixel, the higher the resolution of the image. Spectral resolution refers to the number of bands and the wavelength width of each band. A band is a narrow portion of the electromagnetic spectrum. Shorter wavelength widths can be distinguished in higher spectral resolution images. Multi-spectral imagery can measure several wavelength bands such as visible green or NIR. Landsat, Quickbird and Spot satellites use multispectral sensors. Hyperspectral imagery measures energy in narrower and more numerous bands than multi-spectral imagery. The narrow bands of hyperspectral imagery are more sensitive to variations in energy wavelengths and therefore have a greater potential to detect crop stress than multi-spectral imagery. Multi-spectral and hyperspectral imagery are used together to provide a more complete picture of crop conditions.

Radiometric resolution refers to the sensitivity of a remote sensor to variations in the reflectance levels. The higher the radiometric resolution of a remote sensor, the more sensitive it is to detecting small differences in reflectance values. Higher radiometric resolution allows a remote sensor to provide a more precise picture of a specific portion of the electromagnetic spectrum. Temporal resolution refers to how often a remote sensing platform can provide coverage of an area. Geo-stationary satellites can provide continuous sensing while normal orbiting satellites can only provide data each time they pass over an area. Remote sensing taken from cameras mounted on airplanes is often used to provide data for applications requiring more frequent sensing. Cloud cover can interfere with the data from a scheduled remotely sensed data system. Remote sensors located in fields or attached to agricultural equipment can provide the most frequent temporal resolution.

Figure above illustrates a satellite remote sensing complete process as applied to agricultural monitoring processes. The sun (A) emits electromagnetic energy (B) to plants (C). A portion of the electromagnetic energy is transmitted through the leaves. The sensor on the satellite detects the reflected energy (D). The data is then transmitted to the ground station (E). The data is analyzed (F) and displayed on field maps (G).

Here are some application of remote sensing in the field of agriculture and its explanations. In order to determine the soil characteristics, remote sensing images obtained when vegetative field coverage is not significant often are called bare soil images. These data can be used to identify areas of the field with similar physical soil properties. This method has not been widely accepted as an adequate method of soil mapping because the reflectance characteristics of the desired soil properties often are affected by variability in soil moisture content, crop residue coverage, surface roughness, atmospheric conditions, solar zenith angle, and view angle. However, the patterns of bare soil images in many instances reproduce soil type survey maps and are often more accurate. Digital Orthophoto Quadrangles (DOQ) is the most popular examples of imagery that can be downloaded from various data bank web sites. Alternatively, bare soil images can be used as a key element in prescribing adaptive soil sampling that provides a cost efficient alternative to conventional grid sampling. Homogeneity of bare soil reflection in certain areas of the field (in practice represented by management zones) usually suggests similarities in organic matter content and some other key soil properties causing variable soil fertility and moisture holding capacity. The management zone approach can be significantly enhanced when productivity factors derived from ground-based soil maps and crop related information are integrated. Next, yield prediction. Yield estimation by means of remote sensing data is not new. Experimentation in this area has been ongoing since before the launch of NASAs first Earth Resources Technology Satellite (ERTS-1, now known as Landsat) in 1972.Currently, remotely sensed imagery is being applied to predict yield in two ways. The first, focused on crop-growth models, uses remote sensing as a calibration tool for a particular model. Some of these, processoriented physiological crop growth models, could be used to accurately predict yield under well managed conditions. However, the models require agronomic and meteorological data that generally are not available at desired spatial resolution. Current physiological crop growth models appear to be primarily intended for research purposes and input requirements are numerous and complex. While in crop monitoring, remote sensing images generated from vegetative indices, like NDVI and GNDVI, throughout the growing season are becoming common. These products (often referred to as Crop vigor or Vegetation status maps) can be used to guide nutrient management, weed control, and irrigation. Remotely sensed crop vegetation data also can be

used to identify crop stresses and injuries due to abnormal soil and weather conditions (drought, weed patches, soil erosion, nutrient deficiency, hail storms, flooding, and many more.). These data can help identify field areas that are most susceptible to poor crop performance. In nutrient management field, knowledge of plant growth, nutrient uptake patterns during the growing season and deficiency symptoms have prompted researchers to acquire imagery during key growth stages. Crop reflectance varies with: 1) Genetic varietal differences in corn and soybean cultivars, 2) Leaf structure, growth stage, soil color, and nutrient/moisture content, and 3) Environmental stress factors. Therefore, relative vegetation condition cannot be directly compared between fields (for example, hybrid to hybrid). However, it is possible to assess relative health within one field. As with most crop tests, there is a need for on-site calibration with a reference strip (also referred to as normalization). The crop reference strip is given excess nitrogen fertilizer to ensure a no-stress condition for comparison purposes. With the use of an on-site crop calibration strip, relative health within a field can be assessed with imagery. Additionally, it can be seen that some hybrids are more sensitive to a nitrogen deficit than others. As applied in weed detection. Competition from weeds is a major source of yield loss in row crop production. During most years, weed populations in row crops will require some form of weed management to reduce the impact on both quality and quantity of yield. A growers ability to use site-specific technologies to reduce the quantity of herbicide applied would be recognized economically. This reduced application would, in turn, markedly reduce the filtration of chemicals into surface and groundwater supplies. Weed populations often are aggregated in fields. Imagery may be used to separate weeds from bare soil by taking advantage of the increase in near-infrared reflectance during early season development. This is about the time that post-emergence herbicides are applied. Last but not least, the irrigation. Its help reduce the time required and spatial uncertainty associated with irrigation scheduling, remote sensing can be used to help automate and perhaps more accurately schedule irrigation. Research to improve irrigation scheduling with remote sensing technologies has been conducted using on-site, airborne, and satellite sensors to accurately detect canopy temperature, pigment content and composition, vegetation indices, leaf

cell structure, canopy architecture, and leaf-water content. Each of these research efforts has enhanced our understanding of crop growth, but at this time none has produced a viable product to be used for irrigation scheduling. One technique for detecting crop stress (including that due to a water deficit) is fluorescence. As plants become stressed, the photosynthetic process begins to slow down. When this happens, plants are unable to fully utilize all of the solar radiation that is captured via photosynthesis. Most of the unused energy is converted to heat, but a small portion is emitted as red light (chlorophyll fluorescence). Infrared sensors (infrared thermometers referred to as IRTs) are available to monitor canopy temperature. Medium to low spatial resolution visible and thermal data are available from Landsat Thematic Mapper and can be used to determine net irrigated acreage and cropping patterns. It also can help assess evaporation at scales from the field to irrigation system level. Remote sensing can provide valuable information about soils and vegetative coverage for a relatively large area without physical contact. Several commercial vendors offer aerial and satellite imagery that can serve as one of key GIS layers for making decisions related to sitespecific management. Some vehicle-based concepts have been found suitable for real-time control of agricultural chemical application rates. Difficulties related to data quality and timely deliveries are two major concerns that have emerged from past experience. Numerous research efforts are currently directed to development and validation of various applications of remotely sensed data to support precision agriculture. The strength of remote sensing is the opportunity to learn more about crop performance variability while the crop is still growing. Benefits can be realized by combining this information with soil, yield and other maps in developing an integrated crop production program. When adequate information on these component parts of the agricultural system are available or can be collected, political and economic concerns can be addressed through improved management programmes to ensure both the sustainable utilisation of the available resources for food and of appropriate high level decisions regarding food movements, pricing and imports or exports. The premier way of acquiring this data in a cost-effective and synoptic way is through the use of rigorous remote sensing methodologies.