Low-weight and UAV-based Hyperspectral Full-frame Cameras for Monitoring Crops: Spectral Comparison with Portable Spectroradiometer Measurements

The non-destructive monitoring of crop growth status with field-based or tractor-based multi-or hyperspectral sensors is a common practice in precision agriculture. The demand is given for flexible, easy to use, and field scale systems with super-high resolution (< 20 cm) or on single plant scale to provide knowledge on in-field variability of crop status for management purposes. Satellite- and airborne systems are usually not able to provide the spatial and temporal resolution for such purposes within a low-cost approach. The developments in the area of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV) equipped with hyperspectral sensor systems may be suited to fill that niche. In this contribution, we introduce two hyperspectral full-frame cameras weighing less than 1 kg which can be mounted to low-weight UAVs (< 3 kg). The first results of a campaign in June/July 2013 are presented and the derived spectra from the hyperspectral images are compared to related spectra collected with a portable spectroradiometer. The first results are promising.