Wide-area agricultural monitoring and prediction
View Patent ↗Ground-based measurements of agricultural metrics such as NDVI are used to calibrate wide-area aerial measurements of the same metrics. Calibrated wide-area data may then be used as an input to a field prescription processor.
1. A method for calibrating agricultural measurements comprising:
using an aerial sensor to obtain aerial data representing relative measurements of an agricultural metric in a geographic area, the relative measurements having an unknown bias;
using a ground-based sensor to obtain ground-based data representing absolute measurements of the agricultural metric within the geographic area; and,
a processor using the absolute measurements to calibrate the relative measurements, thereby synthesizing absolute measurements of the agricultural metric in parts of the geographic area; wherein,
synthesizing absolute measurements includes using a plant growth model to propagate ground-based data forward or backward in time as needed to compare it with non-contemporaneous aerial data.
2. The method of claim 1 , the aerial data obtained from a satellite.
3. The method of claim 1 , the aerial data obtained from an airplane.
4. The method of claim 1 , the agricultural metric being normalized difference vegetative index.
5. The method of claim 1 , the agricultural metric being a reflectance-based vegetative index.
6. The method of claim 1 further comprising: combining data representing the ground-based and synthesized absolute measurements with additional spatial agricultural data to generate a prescription for the application of chemicals to an agricultural field.
7. The method of claim 6 , the additional spatial agricultural data being a soil data map.
8. The method of claim 6 , the additional spatial agricultural data being a crop data map.
9. The method of claim 6 , the additional spatial agricultural data being climate data.
10. The method of claim 6 , the chemicals being fertilizers.
11. The method of claim 6 , the chemicals being pesticides or herbicides.
12. The method of claim 6 , the prescription based on an agricultural algorithm having an agricultural metric and climate data as inputs.
13. The method of claim 12 , the agricultural metric being normalized difference vegetative index and the climate data including growing degree days since planting.
14. The method of claim 1 , the plant growth model being a linear model.
15. A system for making calibrated agricultural measurements comprising:
a source of aerial data representing relative measurements of an agricultural metric in a geographic area, the relative measurements having an unknown bias;
a source of ground-based data representing absolute measurements of the agricultural metric within the geographic area; and,
a database and processor that use the absolute measurements to calibrate the relative measurements, thereby synthesizing absolute measurements of the agricultural metric in parts of the geographic area; wherein,
synthesizing absolute measurements includes using a plant growth model to propagate ground-based data forward or backward in time as needed to compare it with non-contemporaneous aerial data.
16. The system of claim 15 , the aerial data obtained from a satellite.
17. The system of claim 15 , the aerial data obtained from an airplane.
18. The system of claim 15 , the agricultural metric being normalized difference vegetative index.
19. The system of claim 15 , the agricultural metric being a reflectance-based vegetative index.
20. The system of claim 15 , the database and processor further combining data representing the ground-based and synthesized absolute measurements with additional spatial agricultural data to generate a prescription for the application of chemicals to an agricultural field.
21. The system of claim 15 , the additional spatial agricultural data being a soil data map.
22. The system of claim 15 , the additional spatial agricultural data being a crop data map.
23. The system of claim 15 , the additional spatial agricultural data being climate data.
24. The system of claim 15 , the chemicals being fertilizers.
25. The system of claim 15 , the chemicals being pesticides or herbicides.
26. The system of claim 15 , the prescription based on an agricultural algorithm having an agricultural metric and climate data as inputs.
27. The system of claim 26 , the agricultural metric being normalized difference vegetative index and the climate data including growing degree days since planting.
28. The system of claim 15 , the plant growth model being a linear model.