Scientist speaks of precision agriculture through remote sensing

During an optical science conference in San Diego, a University of California, Davis soil scientist spoke on how to move remote sensing technology into precision agriculture.

Michael Whiting gave a presentation titled “Hyperspectral mapping of crop and soils for precision agriculture” at the SPIE annual meeting August 13-17 at the San Diego Convention Center. Susan Ustin was also a contributing author to the presentation.

Precision farming includes soil clay maps, soil moisture maps, chlorophyll maps, crop moisture maps, and soil salinity maps. Irrigation systems are chosen on soil, clay, and crop moisture results.

Whiting notes that one advantage of the technology is the ability to adapt quickly to situations. “They’re able to turn that data around in 24 hours,” he said. “The farmer can hand it to his irrigator and they’re up and running.”

The technology involves spectral band patterns. “When the earth is wet you have a strong absorption in the shortwave infrared,” Whiting said.

Other bandwidths identify cellulose traits. “Maybe we’ll get more information after looking at the cellulose change,” Whiting said.

The system faces adaptation to complex situations. Whiting noted that water tends to mask particles when clay is measured. “We’re already underestimating the amount of clay content due to the water,” he said. “There’s an increasing absorption with increasing amount of water.”

Whiting and his group have been testing the technology on a handful of Central California farms.