Feel The Heat
Research Theme
Agriculture, Food and Environment
Status
Completed
Lead Researcher
Dr. Willemijn Appels
Duration of Project
2016-2017
Funders
CARIF
Project Description
Decision-making for crop management can be improved with detailed, frequent observations of soil, weather, and plant conditions. The temperature of a crop reveals information on its well-being: the cooler the crop is compared to the air temperature, the more successful it is at obtaining water. In this project we built and tested a wireless infrared camera to measure the temperature of plants in an agricultural field. From this data, we developed a computer program that translates the images into an indicator of water stress level that is useful for irrigation scheduling.