RE: aerial IR of plants

[Ron Aavang <Ron_Aavang@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

> Original Message-----
> From:	Lee Tarpley [SMTP:tarpley@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx]
> Sent:	Thursday, June 24, 1999 3:36 PM
> To:	infrared@xxxxx
> Subject:	Re: aerial IR of plants
> 
> Ron Aavang wrote concerning "Sony Night Shot Digital VideoCams"
> > >    
> > 	The use of IR for vegetation is one of the scientific uses it is
> > good for. It will show you healthy plants and plants that are not as
> healthy
> > because healthy plants reflect a lot of IR, if diseased or malnourished,
> > plants reflect less IR and show up darker, or less red if you use EIR. I
> > like using HIE and EIR from a small airplane to photograph my brothers
> farm
> > fields to look for unhealthy/underfertilized areas. If he knows where to
> > look he might fine that the problem is a bug or a weed or something he
> can
> > spray for and he can then cure the right problem and get a larger yield
> in
> > the fall harvest. 
> 
> Just a clarification. The amount of reflectance of the very near infrared
> radiation (VNIR) by an individual leaf does not change much for many
> stresses. From high up, a decrease in VNIR reflectance is due to a change
> in the amount of leaf material observed per ground area. This change in
> foliage density can be due to loss of leaves or drooping of leaves, both
> of
> which can occur in stress.
> 
> Lee Tarpley
> 
	That could be true from high up at 30,000+ feet, I don't know myself
as my photography is from a small single engine Cessna aircraft from 500
feet to 2000 feet at the most, mostly of corn & soybean fields. If we have
an area that we didn't get some anhydrous on, it will show pinker than the
rest of the field which will show red. Small changes are easy to see because
the whole area is the same plant crop. We just look for areas with a little
different shade, EIR is easier to see changes because the color changes, HIE
is just a density change which is harder to differentiate.

	Gary, after seeing what my Sony does with smoke, I know that an IR
vision device will be a great help for firefighters. It saw thru the smoke
and I could see exactly where the fire was burning. They should be able to
see victims in buildings and pull them to safety quicker to save more lives.
I haven't tried it with my telescope, but now that you mentioned it, I think
I will try it, thanks for bringing it up.

	In the future I will try to make a web site and show some examples
of my work.

	Ron
*
****
*******
******************************************************
*  To remove yourself from this list, send:          *
*         UNSUBSCRIBE INFRARED                       *
*       to                                           *
*         MAJORDOMO@xxxxx                            *
*----------------------------------------------------*
*   For the IR-FAQ, IR-Gallery and heaps of links:   *
*  http://www.a1.nl/phomepag/markerink/mainpage.htm  *
******************************************************