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ARS Home » Pacific West Area » Parlier, California » San Joaquin Valley Agricultural Sciences Center » Water Management Research » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #305054
Title: UAS-based infrared thermography for evaluating biofuel crop water status

Author
item Zhang, Huihui
item Wang, Dong
item Ayars, James

Submitted to: ASA-CSSA-SSSA Annual Meeting Abstracts
Publication Type: Abstract Only
Publication Acceptance Date: 7/28/2014
Publication Date: 11/4/2014
Citation: Zhang, H., Wang, D., Ayars, J.E. 2014. UAS-based infrared thermography for evaluating biofuel crop water status. ASA-CSSA-SSSA International Annual Meeting, November 2-5, 2014, Long Beach, California. Poster No. 228.

Interpretive Summary:

Technical Abstract: Remote sensing of crop canopy temperature is a scientifically-based method to evaluate crop water stress at or near real time. Potential approaches for estimating biofuel crop water status from an unmanned aerial system (UAS’s) equipped with a thermal camera were evaluated in this study. An experimental trial was set up in the central valley of Maui, Hawaii, comprising four sugarcane and three energy cane varieties; four irrigation regimes with three replications. Aerial thermal imagery of this field was acquired using a FLIR A615 thermal camera mounted on the UAS’s. A weather station was installed in a full irrigation plot to collect meteorological parameters. A method was developed to convert the temperature value of each pixel into the crop water stress index. The results showed that low irrigation level treatment plots resulted in higher canopy temperatures compared to the high irrigation level treatment plots. Canopy temperatures in energy cane plots were lower than those in sugarcane plots which may indicate that energy cane was less sensitive to water stress compared to sugarcane varieties. The study shows that it is feasible to use a UAS’s thermal based method to quantify plant water status of sugarcane or energy cane used for biofuel crops.