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Langdon, ND | I think you are very spot on and will add my thoughts as well. Not all imagery is taken every 16 days but Landsat is and being from the north that is what most use since it's free. Satellites can come down to 5 meter with a decent usable price under $1/acre as of now. Other satellites are coming on such as Sentinel that will eventually be 10 meter every 5 days. Those combined with other sats going up we will get to daily very soon and daily 2-5 meter within the next 3-5 years. In saying that they are and will be more than capable to use in season but UAVs can work together like you stated. I believe the best combination to cover the acres the most efficiently will be using satellite images to get your base like you described but also your main in season base but not by UAVs. They can only cover so much in a limited time, yes the resolutions are there but if you are an agronomist or service provider you need to spend time scouting not mapping. Sats can do the mapping while UAVs do the scouting by general pics and high res shots in the specific zones found by sats. This way you can cover more acres with more layers in the same year but get the very small specifics in the zones you want. They need to be used as a pair.
One point I always like to bring up is sure planters, sprayers, applicators are getting better with individual placement by row or nozzle but that's not the major issue. It's managing the resolution of the data you have and making an informed decision based on that zone or area. Making a decision on a centimeter base is almost impossible and to make sense of it most programs de-resolute the image to make it easier to discern. Then you are back at your 2-10 meter resolution anyway. Until computers (human can't Imo) can manage and analyze very specifically to a zone as small as the resolution a UAV can take there isn't a practical reason to use them for major in season infrared whole field prescription mapping. Hence my point on only infrared ndvi mapping to a small zone discerned by multiple in season satellite or aerial images.
I've stated this process before and it is certainly not for everyone but to use imagery properly all aspects of reality in making the data work properly is so key. Scalability and the business models companies use to gather this data is critical. Find me a UAV mapping specialist that can cover enough acres and process all that data with detailed prescriptions for a group like agronomist, service providers, crop insurance adjusters, etc.... that cover 50,000+ acres in two months for a cost that is in scope of reality and legally. It's not possible now and might never be if you expect a UAV to map every single acre when satellite and planes are more than capable to do the exact same job for a lower price. It's logistics really.
Not gripping on UAVs but they just need to find there place and not be the be all and do all like many people seem to put them in. Together like you mentioned is answer in what ever way the user can manage. Long rant but what can I say, I'm passionate, hence the name. | |
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The Importance of Precision Ag (UAV & Satellite imagery use)
