This paper was presented at the Art, Science and Applications of Reflectance Spectroscopy Symposium sponsored by ASD Inc. and IEEE GRSS, February 23-25, 2010 in Boulder, Colorado.

Author: Rabi Narayan Sahoo
Affiliation: Division of Agricultural Physics, Indian Agricultural Research Institute, New Delhi, India

Abstract

In recent years, the technique and science of contiguous narrow band spectral observations through spectroradiometer and imaging spectrometry has evolved rapidly towards enhancing the physical, chemical and biological understanding of the agro-ecosystem. The reflectance spectroscopy provides information having tremendous thematic applications in soils and agriculture. This paper broadly deals with evaluation potential of reflectance spectroscopy in estimation of different soil parameters both from ground (spectoradiometer) and space (Hyperion) platforms, characterization of weeds and residues and their discrimination in wheat fields, monitoring pest and diseases in agricultural crops and orchard crop like mango. One- dimensional index called ‘Total Information Content Index’ was developed through complete data compression of n-dimensional remotely sensed data received either from spectroradiometer or remote sensing satellite and evaluated in characterizing natural resources and also differentiating soil moisture levels in visible-NIR region of electromagnetic spectrum. Hyper-BRDF data generated through designed low cost goniometer were also evaluated to retrieve biophysical parameters mainly leaf area index, chlorophyll content and leaf water content of wheat, soyabean and mustard crops through radiative transfer modeling and same was used further to retrieve the said parameters at regional scale for better crop growth monitoring.