ASSESSING SOURCES OF CORN FIELD VARIABILITY USING AIRBORNE IMAGERY COINCIDENT WITH SURFACE MEASUREMENTS

摘要

Successful image interpretation for agricultural applications requires an understanding of the agronomic sources of image tone variability. This is especially important for identifying signatures due to natural variability that have limited economic consequences. A coordinated airborne and surface data collection campaign was conducted on a 6 ha cornfield in Beltsville, Maryland to assess causal factors of image tone variation. The relationships between georegistered images and topography, foliage density, and mean tip angle are assessed. These parameters were sampled at 64 locations within the field and then interpolated to produce continuous spatial coverages. Qualitative comparisons of these parameter maps with hyperspectral imagery are presented.