Skip to main content
ARS Home » Plains Area » Bushland, Texas » Conservation and Production Research Laboratory » Soil and Water Management Research » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #417561
Research Project: Dryland and Irrigated Crop Management Under Limited Water Availability and Drought

Location: Soil and Water Management Research

Title: Infrared thermometer data at the weighing lysimeters at Bushland, Texas

Author
item Colaizzi, Paul
item Oshaughnessy, Susan
item Evett, Steven - Steve
item Marek, Gary
item Copeland, Karen
item Ruthardt, Brice

Submitted to: Ag Data Commons
Publication Type: Database / Dataset
Publication Acceptance Date: 8/19/2024
Publication Date: 8/21/2024
Citation: Colaizzi, P.D., O'Shaughnessy, S.A., Evett, S.R., Marek, G.W., Copeland, K.S., Ruthardt, B.B. 2024. Infrared thermometer data at the weighing lysimeters at Bushland, Texas. Ag Data Commons. https://doi.org/10.15482/USDA.ADC/26397901.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.15482/USDA.ADC/26397901

Interpretive Summary: Infrared thermometers can measure the surface temperature of plant leaves. For irrigated crops, this is useful for scheduling irrigation timing and amounts. This is also useful for detecting crop diseases. These applications have been shown to conserve water. This is important because most agricultural regions have limited and declining water available for irrigation. The recent availability of wireless infrared thermometers has resulted in large datasets of plant temperature data becoming available. This dataset includes plant leaf temperatures sensed by infrared thermometers for corn, cotton, soybean, and fallow periods. The dataset will be useful to calibrate and test models designed for irrigation scheduling, yield prediction, and crop disease detection.

Technical Abstract: Directional brightness temperatures were sensed on cropped and fallow surfaces using wireless infrared thermometers (IRTs) for six calendar years. The surfaces included the four large weighing lysimeters located at USDA-ARS Conservation and Production Laboratory (CPRL), Soil and Water Management Research Unit (SWMRU), Bushland, Texas (Lat. 35.186714°, Long. -102.094189°, elevation 1170 m above MSL). The calendar years included actively growing crops and fallow periods before and after the crop seasons. Crops included corn (2016, 2018, and 2022), cotton (2020 and 2021), and soybean (2019). The IRTs were deployed at various view angles at each lysimeter, including nadir, each of the four lysimeter corners, a non-irrigated interrow, and an irrigated interrow.