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Presentation Type

Oral Presentation (UNI Access Only)

Keywords

Evapotranspiration--Iowa--Story County--Measurement; Drone aircraft--Scientific applications; Remote sensing--Equipment and supplies;

Abstract

Evapotranspiration (ET) is a key hydrological variable used to evaluate water availability in trees canopies and assess soil moisture content. ET has been studied to plan irrigation schedule, evaluate crop water stress, understand mass and heat exchange between the Earth’s surface and the atmosphere, to assess crop sensitivity to droughts, etc. The recent advent of the Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) has presented new opportunities and challenges in mapping ET at a much finer scale and under various atmospheric conditions. In this research, we integrate the UAS technology to estimate and map ET over a soybean and corn field in central Iowa, as a method for predicting a single crop coefficient (Kc) and monitoring crop water consumption in five different stages of crop development: establishment, vegetative, flowering, yield formation and ripening. Multispectral and thermal sensors onboard the UAS were used to collect imagery to be utilized as input for the Surface Energy Balance Algorithm for Land (SEBAL) model that estimate ET as a residual of the surface energy budget. The results are being validated with ground truth fluxes measured by Eddy Covariance (EC) towers, and initial analysis indicate that UAS can be used to estimate and map ET, the single crop coefficient (Kc) and to monitor crop conditions.

Start Date

4-4-2017 1:00 PM

End Date

4-4-2017 4:30 PM

Faculty Advisor

Bingqing Liang

Faculty Advisor

Patrick Pease

Department

Department of Geography

Comments

Location: Maucker Union University Room

File Format

application/pdf

Embargo Date

4-4-2017

Off-Campus Access

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Apr 4th, 1:00 PM Apr 4th, 4:30 PM

Estimating Fluxes of Energy and Evapotranspiration with an Unmanned Aircraft System in Ames, Iowa

Evapotranspiration (ET) is a key hydrological variable used to evaluate water availability in trees canopies and assess soil moisture content. ET has been studied to plan irrigation schedule, evaluate crop water stress, understand mass and heat exchange between the Earth’s surface and the atmosphere, to assess crop sensitivity to droughts, etc. The recent advent of the Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) has presented new opportunities and challenges in mapping ET at a much finer scale and under various atmospheric conditions. In this research, we integrate the UAS technology to estimate and map ET over a soybean and corn field in central Iowa, as a method for predicting a single crop coefficient (Kc) and monitoring crop water consumption in five different stages of crop development: establishment, vegetative, flowering, yield formation and ripening. Multispectral and thermal sensors onboard the UAS were used to collect imagery to be utilized as input for the Surface Energy Balance Algorithm for Land (SEBAL) model that estimate ET as a residual of the surface energy budget. The results are being validated with ground truth fluxes measured by Eddy Covariance (EC) towers, and initial analysis indicate that UAS can be used to estimate and map ET, the single crop coefficient (Kc) and to monitor crop conditions.