Airborne and satellite remote sensors for precision agriculture

Publication date: 05/11/2018
Extent: 28 pages

Contributions by: Chenghai Yang, USDA-ARS, USA

Chapter synopsis: Remote sensing provides an important source of information to characterize soil and crop variability for both within-season and after-season management despite the availability of numerous ground-based soil and crop sensors. Remote sensing applications in precision agriculture have been steadily increasing in the last two decades due to improvements in spatial, spectral and temporal resolutions of airborne and satellite remote sensors. This chapter will provide an overview of manned aircraft–based airborne imaging systems and high-resolution satellite remote sensors that have been used for precision agriculture. Numerous airborne multispectral and hyperspectral imaging systems and high-resolution satellite sensors are discussed, and application examples are provided to illustrate how remote sensing imagery has been used in precision agricultural applications. Some challenges and future trends on the use of airborne and high-resolution satellite sensors for precision agriculture are discussed.

DOI: 10.19103/AS.2017.0032.03