Multisensor data integration and reflectance spectroscopy applied to strategic targets mapping of tropical agriculture

Abstract

This project is based on remote sensing assumptions to completely explore different wavelengths of electromagnetic radiation as an accessory, nondestructive and low-cost analytical method for the estimation of biophysical parameters for tropical crops and soil properties. For this purpose, reflectance spectroscopy methods will be used in association with different orbital and airborne imaging sensors. Soil and crop data will be collected at Embrapa's experimental fields and then submitted to intrusive/destructive laboratory analyses with the aim of identifying and validating the targets' main physical/chemical components in comparison to the spectroradiometric measurements (Fieldspec). The results expected are: (i) the development and improvement of spectroradiometric quantification and analysis methods adapted to the tropical environmental context; (ii) the creation of spectral libraries for analytical and quantitative use in classification algorithms for images taken by remote sensors; (iii) the identification of important diagnostic spectral features associated with soils and vegetation, to set bounds on the use of the new generation of remote sensors (e.g. calibration, classification). The impact of such technology is considered essential for cost reduction in research activities and production within the tropical agriculture context, specially by providing an unpublished database for the laboratory-field interface. (AU)