H31J-06
Use of UAS Remote Sensing Data (AggieAir) to Estimate Crop ET at High Spatial Resolution
Wednesday, 16 December 2015: 09:15
3022 (Moscone West)
Manal ELarab1, Alfonso Torres2, Austin Jensen1 and Mac McKee1, (1)Utah State University, Logan, UT, United States, (2)Utah Water Research Lab, Utah State University, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Logan, UT, United States
Abstract:
Estimation of the spatial distribution of evapotranspiration (ET) based on remotely sensed imagery has become useful for managing water in irrigated agricultural at various spatial scales. Currently, data acquired by conventional satellites (Landsat, ASTER, etc.) lack the needed spatial resolution to capture variability of interest to support evapotranspiration estimates. In this study, an unmanned aerial system (UAS), called AggieAirTM, was used to acquire high-resolution imagery in the visual, near infrared (0.15m resolution) and thermal infrared spectra (0.6m resolution). AggieAir flew over two study sites in Utah and Central Valley of California. The imagery was used as input to a surface energy balance model based on the Mapping Evapotranspiration with Internalized Calibration (METRIC) modeling approach. The discussion will highlight the ET estimation methodologies and the implications of having high resolution ET maps.
