Monitoring Nitrogen Status of Irrigated Maize Using Both Ground and Aerial Sensing Platforms.

Crop canopy stress in corn has been monitored in a variety of ways, including passive spectrometers, infrared thermometers, height sensors, and active spectral sensors. These sensors have been mounted to several different platforms, including high clearance row crop tractors, fixed platforms, motorcycles, and aerial vehicles.  Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV’s) provide unique advantages to monitoring crop stress. They can be transported to the site in an automobile, can be rapidly deployed below cloud cover, they fly themselves, and they do not contribute to traffic and compaction in the field, so soil moisture is not a concern. We will compare canopy data collected from sensors based on ground and aerial platforms, using a range of passive and active sensors, during 2012 and 2013 growing seasons for irrigated maize.