Our multispectral drones can interrogate plant life to determine crop and soil condition over large areas and target areas needing attention leading to increased yields and more efficient watering and fertilisation.
Plants absorb near red and near infra red light when they are producing chlorophyll. Chlorophyll production is a sign of plant health. At same time the plant is not absorbing green light but reflecting it. That is why we see healthy grass as green! As plants fail chlorophyll production falls and plants absorb more of teh green light and we see that as a "yellowing" by which time it could be too late.
Multispectral cameras measure light in different wave bands and in particular they use the light being absorbed in the red and near infra red bands to calculate how healthy a plant is which as humans we can only do once the damage is done.. Red is healthy, yellow is failing and green is dying or dead. ( None vegetation areas show blue or green depending on the surface material. This calculation is a "Normal Vegetation Digital Indices" or NDVI report.
We can monitor crop health during the growing cycle and pin point areas of concern. Multispectral work is useful for traditional crops but also forest and orchard management
Reports can identify areas needing attention across the golf course, maximising the quality of the playing surfaces, saving greenkeepers time and reduce watering and fertilising where over use can cause environmental damage
Multispectral Drones can access and monitor plant health in SSSIs and other sensitive or difficult to reach areas with little or no impact on the land or wildlife and can be used in conjunction with thermal drones to monitor wildlife
At Image Surveys Limited we are proud to reinvest time and money in to researching drone uses and we are currently using multiple drones to combine RGB images with thermal and multispectral images to try and detect subsoil issues for both farms and golf courses to reduce loss and disruption. You can see an example of our work using the link below
Image Surveys Limited
Heritage House, 9b Hoghton Street, Southport, Merseyside, PR9 0TE, United Kingdom