Assessment of crop stress conditions using low altitude aerial color‐infrared photography and computer image processing

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Abstract
Stress conditions on various crops caused by moisture deficiency, nutrient deficiency and plant diseases were studied using low altitude aerial color‐infrared (CIR) photography. A remotely controlled aircraft, carrying a color video camera and a 35 mm reflex camera, flying at altitudes of 50 to 100 m, was used for obtaining aerial photography. The CIR transparencies recorded for different crops were scanned into an AT 386 desktop computer and processed by MIPS software using on screen interpretation to classify crop stress conditions. In a rootrot‐affected lemon orchard diseased trees could be identified and differentiated from healthy trees. Soybean plots under moisture stress were classified into high, moderate and low stress levels. These stress levels related well with infrared (IR) thermal measurements of the crop canopy. In a wheat field experiment that was fertilized at different levels of phosphorus (P), areas with P deficiency and sufficient P could be classified on the processed CIR image. Soil P and wheat yield correlated well with the classified CIR image. Results indicate that low altitude CIR aerial photography obtained from remotely controlled aircraft and image processing computers can be a relative inexpensive tool to assess crop stress conditions.

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