Remote sensing –Beyond images Mexico 14-15 December 2013 The workshop was organized by CIMMYT Global Conservation Agriculture Program (GCAP) and funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF), the Mexican Secretariat of Agriculture, Livestock, Rural Development, Fisheries and Food (SAGARPA), the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT), CGIAR Research Program on Maize, the Cereal System Initiative for South Asia (CSISA) and the Sustainable Modernization of the Traditional Agriculture (MasAgro)

1. An Aerial Remote Sensing
Platform for High Throughput
Phenotyping of Genetic
Resources
Maize Physiology, (Zimbabwe)
Wheat Physiology, (Mexico)
CIMMYT
Observing with “artificial
eyes”

2. Remote sensing for field phenotyping at CIMMYT
 Why do we need remote sensing?
•
•
•
•
Non-intrusive measurements
Coverage of large areas
Accessibly
Reduce error variance
 Sensors
•
•
•
Ground-based: e.g. Thermal, Hyperspectral, Ground Penetrating Radar
Airborne: Thermal, multispectral
Space-borne: Multispectral
 Remote Sensing for field phenotyping CIMMYT
1. Phenotyping: Drought, irrigation, low nitrogen
2. Field variability:
3. Stress Evaluation

3. Ground-based Remote Sensing for Field
Phenotyping
Spectroradiometer
IR Thermometer Greenseeker
Cossani et al, 2013
Weber et al. 2012; Zia et al. 2012;
Cairns et al. 2012

4. Problems with hand-held measurements

5. Reducing field variability
Increasing the “signal to noise” ratio
should increase breeding efficiency
Current methods to characterise field
variability are too slow to be incorporated
into the breeding pipeline
Weber et al. 2012; Cairns et al. 2013; Prasanna et al. 2013;; Araus and Cairns, 2014

7. Airborne Remote Sensing Platform for High
Throughput Phenotyping
•
•
•
•
•
•
AB1100 helium filled blimp.
Tethered.
L8.0m, W3.1m.
Payload approx 6 kg
Max flight height 300 m.
Max wind speed 13 m/s.
•
•
•
•
•
Astec Falcon 8, 8-rotar UAV.
Remote controlled.
650 g payload.
Max flight height approx 130 m.
Max wind speed 10 m/s.
•
•
Airelectronics Skywalker
Autonomous flying

8. Airborne Remote Sensing Platform
Platoform
Instrument
Specifications
Helium Blimp
Tetracam mini MCA 12
Channel Imaging
Spectrometer
•
Tetracam ACD Light
Multispectral Camera
•
ASTEC Falcon/Skywalker
•
•
Resolution: 1280 x 1024 (1.3
megepixels)
Spectral Range: 12 channels
between 445-980 nm
Resolution: 2048 x 1536 (3.1
megapixels)
Spectral Range: 3 bands in
Green, Red and NIR
FLIR Tau 640 LWIR
Uncooled Thermal Imaging
Camera
•
ASTEC Falcon
SONY NEX-5N Digital
Camera
•
Resolution: 4588 x 3056 (14
megapixels)
Skywalker
Miricle 307 KS Thermal
Camera
•
640x480 detector resolution:
(0.3 megapixels) and 25μm
pitch KS
ASTEC Falcon
•
Resolution: 640 x 512 (0.3
megapixels)
Spectral Range: 7.5-13 μm

9. Airborne Remote Sensing Platform
Physiological
parameter
Indices (from
skywalker)
Plant water use
Canopy temperature
Canopy conductance
Canopy temperature
Plant growth
(biomass)
NDVI
Nutrient deficiency
Senescence/color
Collaboration with Crop Breeding Institute
(Zimbabwe), University of Barcelona and
CSIC

10. Airborne Remote Sensing Platform
Field variability assessment:
• Priority setting of trials
• Incorporating variation into field design
Crop status:
• NDVI → green biomass → crop senescence
• Reflectance → water content
→ chlorophyll content

11. Airborne VS Ground
0.80
0.80
r=-0.86
NDVI GROUND
NDVI GROUND
r=0.84
0.70
0.60
0.70
0.60
MSAVI BLIMP VS NDVI
Ground Drought_1
0.50
0.50
0.60
0.70
NCPI BLIMP VS NDVI Ground
Drought_1
0.50
0.10
0.80
0.75
0.30
NDVI BLIMP VS NDVI Ground
Irrigation_1
0.70
0.65
0.75
PSND BLIMP VS NDVI Ground
Irrigation_1
0.70
0.65
r=-0.91
r=-0.91
0.60
0.20
0.25
0.30
NDVI BLIMP
0.40
NCPI BLIMP
NDVI GROUND
NDVI GROUND
MSAVI BLIMP
0.20
0.35
0.60
0.56
0.61
PSND BLIMP
0.66

12. Airborne VS Yield, Biomass
NDVI Ground
Trial
CIMCOG_H_1
CIMCOG_H_2
SEED_SEL
DIVERSITY SET
FIGS
NDVI UAV
NDVI GROUND
NDVI UAV
NDVI GROUND
NDVI UAV
NDVI GROUND
NDVI UAV
NDVI GROUND
NDVI UAV
NDVI GROUND
Trial
Diversity_Set Thermal Index (UAV)
Yield (g/m2)
0.85
0.77
0.63
0.79
0.74
0.67
0.43
0.64
0.63
0.60
0.58
0.89
0.82
0.71
0.90
CT Ground (oC)
0.59
Biomass (g/m2)
-0.64
-0.60
-0.73
-0.78
-0.55
0.76
(oC)
Yield (g/m2)
-0.57
-0.56
CT Ground (oC)
CIMCOG_H_1 Thermal Index (UAV)
CT Ground
Biomass
(g/m2)
0.79
0.58
0.72
0.64
0.76
0.66
0.69
0.66
-0.61
-0.74
-0.78
-0.62
-0.67
CIMCOG_H_2 Thermal Index (UAV)
0.73
CT Ground (oC)

13. Worldview-2 Satellite Imagery
8 band multispectral imagery + panchromatic image.
770 km altitude.
46 cm panchromatic (single band) spatial resolution + 1.85 cm multispectral spatial
resolution
Pan-sharpened
multispectral WV-2
satellite image.
8.5 x 2.4 m plots
Multispectral
UAV image

14. Worldview-2 Satellite Imagery
Pansharpened multispectral image
(46 cm spatial resolution) applied to
large-plot trial (8.5 x 2.4 m) to derive
NDVI.
Although at high spatial
resolution, still too coarse to be
applied to small plots (approx 2m x
0.8 m)
UAV Multispectral Camera
Satellite Imagery

15. Conclusion
 Airborne remote sensing can be used for non-destructive screening of plant
physiological properties over large areas.
 Enough resolution to obtain information at plot level while being able to measure
several hundred plots with one take.
 Potential to be used as selection tool for breeders (e.g. CT, spectral indices);
avoiding time and costs involved with harvesting to increasing breeding efficiency.
Yield distribution of 3 years mean drought trials
(Cd Obregon, Mexico)
45
40
35
Conventional
crosses
25
20
15
Physiological
trait crosses
10
5
% of check
<1
20
%
11
5%
<=
<1
15
%
11
0%
<=
<1
10
%
10
5%
<=
<1
05
%
10
0%
<=
<1
00
%
95
%
<=
<9
5%
<=
90
%
<=
90
%
0
85
%
%
30

16. THANKS 