The Impact of Weather and Flying Modalities on Uav Estimations of Agronomic Characteristics of Wheat.

Two factors that can potentially influence estimations of agronomic characteristics in wheat when taken from a UAV are weather and flying modalities. Measurements with the UAV were collected with three sensors (RGB digital camera, Near-Infrared Multispectral camera, FLIR Infrared camera) in three different modes: taking one single image of the entire field, taking one single image of each replication, and taking one image at each waypoint and merging to create an orthomosaic. The type of sensor being used determines which modality is appropriate. Generating an orthomosaic of waypoint images is often appropriate with the RGB and near-infrared camera. However, as the wheat crop grows taller, wind can cause the orthomosaic to be of poor quality. Since, changing weather conditions often cause temperature values on each infrared image to be different, it was determined that a single image is best for collecting infrared data.