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Title: Agricultural aviation application in the USA

Author
item XUE, XINYU - Nanjing Research Institute For Agriculture
item Lan, Yubin

Submitted to: Transactions of the Chinese Agricultural Machinery
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 3/31/2013
Publication Date: 5/15/2013
Citation: Xue, X., Lan, Y. 2013. Agricultural aviation application in the USA. Transactions of the Chinese Agricultural Machinery. 44:194-201.

Interpretive Summary: Aerial application is used to apply crop protection products on approximately 40 percent of the cropland in the United States. Aerial application is also used almost exclusively to apply forest protection products and to treat large urban and rural areas for control of mosquitoes that can vector human diseases such as West Nile Virus and equine encephalitis. This article describes the current status of aerial applications including service, equipment, and aerial application techniques in the United States. The techniques of remote sensing, spatial statistics, and variable rate control are discussed relative to estimation and monitoring of yield, crop water and nutrient stresses, and pest damage. The current status of precision aerial application in the United States is discussed with suggestions for incorporating real-time image processing, variable rate technologies, and multisensor data fusion in precision aerial application.

Technical Abstract: The United States has the most advanced equipment and applications in agricultural aviation. It also has a complete service system in agricultural aviation. This article introduces the current status of aerial application including service, equipment, and aerial application techniques. It has a complete system including various components for aerial application swhich could fit into the different applications. It has practical application of different advanced technologies such as GPS autonomous guidance, variable rate technology, and application models. This article also summarizes the techniques in remote sensing, spatial statistics, and variable rate controls, and how these technologies have been used in yield estimation and monitoring of crop water and nutrient stresses, and also pest damage. This article also shows the current status of USA precision aerial application and also provides some thought of the future direction in precision aerial applications including real-time imaging processing, variable rate technologies, and multisensory data fusion.