Precision Crop Management

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Remote Sensing Tutorial

 Remote Sensing CHS

Remote sensing is a fancy term used to describe a process occurring all the time. It’s a rather
simple, familiar activity that we all do as a matter of daily life, but that gets complicated when we
increase the scale. Remote Sensing involves gathering information about the physical world
by detecting and measuring radiation, particles, and fields associated with objects located
beyond the immediate vicinity of the sensor, whatever the sensor may be.

We remotely sense objects all the time, we will use the human senses as an example. Light is
emitted from our sun and strikes our surroundings, which is a source of radiation. The radiated
light passes over a distance, and thus is “remote”, until it is captured by a sensor (our eyes).
Each eye sends a signal to a processor (our brain) which records the data and interprets this
into information. Several of the human senses gather information of the external world by
perceiving a variety of signals, either emitted or reflected, actively or passively, from objects
that transmit this information in waves or pulses. We hear disturbances carried as sound
waves, experience sensations such as heat, react to chemical signals from food through taste
and smell and recognize shapes, colors, and relative positions of objects by means of seeing
visible light. All sensations that are not received through direct contact are remotely sensed.

The image below is another example of remote sensing. In this case, we are looking at a
thermal image of a gentleman holding a match. A sensing device was
used to capture thermal information and a computer was used to turn
this into a colored image. The darker the color, the cooler object is. By
recoloring the image to define the differences we can easily see the
variability in temperature.

In agriculture we aren’t concerned with thermal information or human

senses. We are more interested in plant and soil variability. Remote sensing allows us to
see things we otherwise cannot with the naked eye and create management strategies to
compensate for inherent variability.

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 CHS How it works
How does this apply to agriculture? We as humans only
see visible light, red, green and blue. There are many
other forms of radiation such as infrared, ultraviolet,
microwave and x-ray to name a few. Plants in particular
reflect near infrared light. The image to the right is what
we as humans see, visible light. However, there is more
to the story than meets the eye.

The image to the left is the exact same as the image

above, except this image is capturing infrared light.
Actively growing plants reflect near infrared light and soil
absorbs it along with other man made objects. You see
in the image the building appears relatively the same
as above, but now the tree and grass are colored red to
indicate reflected infrared light. You can even quantify
how much is reflected by the intensity of the color. The
top of the tree and the surrounding grass is a much darker
red color than the tree itself. Much like the thermal image on the first page, we color the
information is such a way to see differences.

The images above were taken with a film camera capable of infrared light detection.
Satellite data are digital images, not analog film. Satellite images work very much
the same as a digital camera. Each image is composed of millions of pixels, or small
little boxes. Much like we see a brick building as one object, it is actually composed
of many small bricks. By combining multiple pixels we can derive a composite
image. Because this image is digital we can manipulate the coloring in such a way
to bring out variability in fields.

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 What PCM Does CHS

Modern science has developed methods of remotely sensing objects on the earth’s surface.
Sensors aboard satellites capture reflected light energy and create an image from the
information. Satellites can capture a wide range of information including visible light (red,
green, blue), but can also capture non visible light such as infrared, near infrared and far
infrared. Precision Crop Management purchases remotely sensed data captured from a
satellite (pictured below) called LandSat 5 to aide in more efficient management decision
making.

LandSat 5 orbits the earth at an altitude of 435 miles

and covers the entire globe every 16 days. Our
area has a possible image collection once every 16
days. Each image captured is approximately 100 x
100 miles, with pixels measuring 45 x 45 feet, making
it very useful for analyzing large areas of land very
quickly.

The LandSat program got its start in 1972 with the first LandSat Satellite launch. It was
initiated by NASA and the Department of interior and has switched ownership many times over
the past decades. It is currently being decided who will continue the program. Captured data
goes back to the late 1980’s and can be purchased for use. We currently have data from 2003
and 2004 and will continue to purchase new data in the future to aide in precision agriculture
practices.

These data are being used to create a history of productivity across the golden triangle.
Instead of waiting years to have a history, we can quickly acquire data from the past and
create an “instant” history to drive precision agriculture practices. The main use is for finding
management zones within fields is to develop tailored fertilizer and seeding rates for each zone.
The imagery can also be used to assess crop health in season, plan for future management
and verify practices to name a few. These images are calibrated so they can be compared
from season to season over multiple years. They are a quantified measure of productivity of
production whether it be range or crop. (406) 466-5862
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CHS

The following pages are examples of what you can expect

from satellite imagery on your operation. These examples
contain both dry land and irrigated cropland.

The image products Precision Crop Management can deliver

are true color, false color infrared, vegetation index, soil index
and change in vegetation index. All indices have a scale
associated with the image and are explained in the reports
below.

If you have any questions please feel free to call. The best
way to witness this technology is to try a field and see how it
fits into your management scheme.

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 CHS

(406) 466-5862
Cell (406) 868-8281
Fax (406) 466-5799
CHS

(406) 466-5862
Cell (406) 868-8281
Fax (406) 466-5799
 CHS

(406) 466-5862
Cell (406) 868-8281
Fax (406) 466-5799
CHS

Malt Barley Pivot

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Fax (406) 466-5799