2018 Inspiration: Six New Ways to Use Multispectral Imagery
The value of multispectral imagery can pertain to more than disease and stress detection in crops. MicaSense customers around the world are sharing their experiences using RedEdge for new and exciting applications.
Our promise to our customers is to help them see beyond what is visible. Often this means identifying stress or disease in crops before it can be seen with the human eye. However, every year more customers are using our sensors in new and exciting ways, sometimes within the scope of agriculture, sometimes not. Their ingenuity not only inspires us, but expands our knowledge of how our own products can provide value. Thus we felt we had to share!
We’ve compiled some of our favorite new use cases of the MicaSense RedEdge, seen on social media. Check them out!
Aquatic weeds identification
The Centre for Regional and Rural Futures (CeRRF) at Deakin University, delivers innovative research solutions and technologies on irrigated agriculture to communities in Australia and across the globe in order to enhance regional and rural productivity.
The CeRRF has been using the MicaSense RedEdge to identify and monitor aquatic weeds in irrigation systems. Early detection is key since aquatic weeds can impact farm productivity by disrupting the irrigation flow.
Follow the CeRRF on twitter @CeRRF_Griffith to learn more about this and other research projects powered by RedEdge.
Detecting buried archaeological features
Archaeologists around the world are as excited as we are to see how multispectral imagery can help them see the “invisible.”
Last year we published a case study showcasing Henry Webber, a Ph.D. candidate at the University of Bristol’s Department of Archaeology and Anthropology, who has been mapping agricultural fields that have known archaeological features beneath them using the MicaSense RedEdge, and has compared his findings with the data obtained with more conventional tools for surveying such as a magnetic gradiometers. The results were astonishing: RedEdge was able to detect marks unnoticed by other archeological tools.
Read the full case study here
Tree species identification, forest monitoring, fire and landslide prevention
Urban forests can also benefit from the use of multispectral imagery!
Customers like Arbore Drone, Spectrabotics, and Aiview Group are using RedEdge for tree species identification and forest monitoring for fire and landslide prevention. This not only saves forest managers’ time, but allows for early issue detection.
Follow these groups on Twitter to learn more about the different applications of multispectral data in forestry.
Early emerald ash borer detection
The Environmental Program at Colorado College, Arbor Drone, and Spectrabotics are working together on a project that uses the MicaSense RedEdge for earlier detection of ash trees damaged by the emerald ash borer in Boulder, Colorado.
The emerald ash borer is a beetle native from Asia that has spread in 31 USA states and Canada. Adult beetles nibble on ash foliage causing little damage, but its larvae can affect the tree’s ability to transport water and nutrients. Thus the importance of its early detection.
Follow @spectrabotics, @ArborDrone, and @ColoradoCollege to keep track of this project and learn more about the advantages of multispectral data for early disease detection.
See variation beyond time
With the use of RedEdge and Atlas, you can see data from different flights over the same field and compare how the indices values changed over time to detect variation. This is something that benefits every industry.
Check out this GIF shared by @Cherbini showcasing the changes on a field after a kite festival. It is exciting to see how vegetation rebounds over time.
Vegetation, beyond agriculture
Ever wonder how you can use multiple precision ag tools to make more informed decisions?
Check out this experiment by John Cherbini, who pulled rain data from his weather station and compared it with the multispectral data collected with MicaSense RedEdge. The result shows how the vegetation on the field changed over time in relation to the amount of rain.
Do you have an example of applications of RedEdge? Share those with us! Use the hashtag #IFlyRedEdge
Ready to learn more? Check out RedEdge, Altum, and other MicaSense solutions on our website!
