Two rows of wheat can look equally green in an aerial photo, yet reflect light differently. A hyperspectral drone is an aircraft fitted with...

Two rows of wheat can look equally green in an aerial photo, yet reflect light differently. A hyperspectral drone is an aircraft fitted with a camera that measures reflected light in dozens or hundreds of narrow, neighboring wavelength bands. Those measurements can reveal differences in plants, water, and other surfaces that are hard to spot by eye. Consider what happened in a wheat stripe rust study. Researchers flew a camera over a field, built a map of estimated disease severity, and checked it against observations on the ground. They reported 85.2% accuracy in identifying severely infected areas. That figure describes one result in one study. It also gives a grower a practical way to think about...

Two rows of wheat can look equally green in an aerial photo, yet reflect light differently. A hyperspectral drone is an aircraft fitted with a camera that measures reflected light in dozens or hundreds of narrow, neighboring wavelength bands. Those measurements can reveal differences in plants, water, and other surfaces that are hard to spot by eye. Consider what happened in a wheat stripe rust study. Researchers flew a camera over a field, built a map of estimated disease severity, and checked it against observations on the ground. They reported 85.2% accuracy in identifying severely infected areas. That figure describes one result in one study. It also gives a grower a practical way to think about...