Remote Sensing Of Soil Water Content
PI - Anthony Brown (Durham University)
Food Side Co-Investigator - Karen Rial-Lovera (Royal Agricultural University)
STFC Side Co-Investigator - Genoveva Burca (STFC - ISIS Neutron And Muon Source)
Food Side Co-Investigator - Karen Rial-Lovera (Royal Agricultural University)
STFC Side Co-Investigator - Genoveva Burca (STFC - ISIS Neutron And Muon Source)
Knowing the amount of water that is present in the soil is fundamentally important to food production. Too little or too much water and the crops don’t grow properly, if at all. Furthermore, saturated ground increases the likelihood of water run-off carrying away important nutrients and fertilisers. This project will look to produce a drone-based prototype to remotely sense the presence of water, using a variety of pass-band filters for optical/infrared light, to concentrate on key water absorption features in reflected light. Comparing the amount of light in these different pass-bands allows us to sense the presence of water. One of the key aspects of this project will be the attention given to calibrating the optical/infrared detectors which draws on our previous STFC-funded work on using these detectors for telescope calibration. Using well calibrated light sources, we will investigate how accurate off-the-shelf cameras are. Using off-the-shelf components will allow the technique to be accessible to the wider farming community then a select few.
2018 AWARDED SCOPING PROJECT - More scoping projects
2018 AWARDED SCOPING PROJECT - More scoping projects
