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Near Real-time Meter-resolution Airborne Imagery For Precision Agriculture: Aerocam
X. Zhang, C. R. Streeter, H. Kim, D. R. Olsen
University of North Dakota

Precision agriculture often relies on high resolution imagery to delineate the variability within a field. Airborne Environmental Research Observational Camera (AEROCam) was designed to meet the needs of agriculture producers, ranchers, and researchers, who require meter-solution imagery in a near real-time environment for rapid decision support. AEROCam was developed and operated through a unique collaboration between several departments at the University of North Dakota, including the Upper Midwest Aerospace Consortium (UMAC), the School of Engineering & Mines, and the flight operations at the John D. Odegard School of Aerospace Sciences. AEROCam consists of a Redlake MS4100 area-scan multi-spectral digital camera that features a 1920 x 1080 CCD array (7.4-micron pixels) with 8-bit quantization. When operated at 6,000 ft above ground level, multispectral images with 4 bands in the visible and near infrared have a ground sample distance of one meter with a horizontal extent of just over one mile. Depending on the applications, the spatial resolutions can be adjusted from 0.25 to 2 meter. Equipped with an inertial measurement unit (IMU) system, the images acquired can be geo-referenced automatically and delivered to end users near real-time through our Digital Northern Great Plains system (DNGP). The images are also available to Zone Mapping Application for Precision-farming (ZoneMAP), an online decision support tool for creating management zones from remote sensing imagery and data from other sources. Operating since 2004, AEROCam has flown over 250 sorties and delivered over 150,000 images to the users in the Northern Great Plains region, resulting in numerous applications in precision agriculture and resource management.

Keyword: remote sensing, airborne, high resolution, precision agriculture