Airborne videography as a data source for the decision-making process in agriculture

摘要

Despite some limitations still found in airborne analog videography when employed as a remote sensing technique, it has showed a high potential as a data source for the decision-making process in agriculture. Experiments that have been performed in Castro (State of Parana, Brazil), with summer crops (corn and soybean) and winter crops (wheat, oat, etc.), have showed the great potential of that technique. Two S-VHS video cameras have been tested: a Panasonic, which operates in the visible region of the spectrum, and a Cohu, which includes part of the near infrared. The main advantages of the method are the relatively low cost and the providing of information in near-real time, which is fundamental in agriculture. The digitized frames (or mosaics) call be either visually interpreted or digitally processed through specific software. Digital processing opens excellent perspectives to the use of airborne videography as an ancillary technique to precision farming.