THE APPLICATION OF REMOTE SENSING IN PRECISION AGRICULTURE

Abstract

The paper provides an overview of foreign literature on the remote sensing applications in precision agriculture. Remote sensing applications in precision agriculture began with sensors for soil organic matter content, and have quickly advanced to include hand held sensors to tractor or aerial or satellite mounted sensors. Wavelengths of electromagnetic radiation initially focused on a few key visible or near infrared bands, and nowadays electromagnetic wavelengths in use range from the ultraviolet to microwave portions of the spectrum. Spectral bandwidth has decreased dramatically with the advent of hyperspectral remote sensing, allowing improved analysis of crop stress, crop biophysical or biochemical characteristics and specific compounds. A variety of spectral indices have been widely implemented within various precision agriculture applications, rather than a focus on only normalized difference vegetation indices. Spatial resolution and temporal frequency of remote sensing imagery has increased significantly, allowing evaluation of soil and crop properties at fine spatial resolution at the expense of increased data storage and processing requirements. At present there is considerable interest in collecting remote sensing for operational management of soil and crop yields, as well as control over the spread of pests and weeds practically in real time.