Monitoring of Wheat Powdery Mildew Disease Severity Using Multiangle Hyperspectral Remote Sensing

The pathogenesis of wheat powdery mildew (WPM) is from the bottom to upper layers of the plant, and the vertical observation angle limits the early monitoring of WPM status. Multiangle remote sensing could effectively extract spatial structural information from different plant layers. The objectives of this study were to improve the monitoring accuracy of WPM severity and to screen suitable observation angles by developing a novel vegetation index. The monitoring capacities of the novel parameters [Normalized Powdery Mildew Index (NPMI) and Ratio Powdery Mildew Index (RPMI)] and 14 optimized traditional spectral parameters were compared at 13 observation angles and different angle ranges. The correlation between all spectral parameters and disease severity was superior in the forward observation direction than in the backward observation direction in the principal plane of the Sun, and the correlation between the two observation directions decreased with an increase in observation angle. The new spectral parameter suitable for inversion of disease index was RPMI (${R}_{744}/{R}_{762}-0.5 \times R_{710}$ ), and the best optimal observation angle was 10, with a 0.852 coefficient, which was 31.74 higher than that of the two-band spectral parameter, ${R}_{744}/{R}_{762}$ . The fitting accuracy of the new parameter in the range of 0 to 30 in the forward direction was 0.704. RPMI could not only improve the monitoring accuracy of powdery mildew severity at a single angle but also achieve a more stable monitoring accuracy in the 0 to 30 range in the forward direction, which significantly expands the application scope of remote sensing monitoring and enhances the flexibility of the technology in actual production environments.

Automated summary

The study aimed to improve monitoring accuracy of wheat powdery mildew severity by developing a novel vegetation index and identifying suitable observation angles. Results showed that the new spectral parameter suitable for disease index inversion was RPMI, with the best optimal observation angle at 10 degrees. RPMI not only enhances monitoring accuracy at a single angle but also provides stable accuracy in the 0 to 30 range in the forward direction.