Multispectral Imaging: Seeing Plant Health Beyond Visible Light
Multispectral imaging uses special sensors to capture light wavelengths (like near-infrared) that plants reflect when healthy. In this NDVI crop health map, green areas indicate vigorous growth while red shows stressed vegetation.
Multispectral cameras detect specific bands of light beyond what our eyes can see, such as near-infrared (NIR) and red-edge wavelengths. Healthy plants absorb most red light for photosynthesis and reflect a lot of NIR energy, whereas a stressed or diseased plant reflects less NIR and relatively more visible light . By flying over fields with a professional 5-band sensor (the MicaSense RedEdge-P), our drones capture these subtle reflectance patterns across every crop row. The data is converted into color-coded vegetation index maps that instantly highlight crop conditions.
Some key multispectral indices we use include:
- NDVI (Normalized Difference Vegetation Index): Combines NIR and red light to measure overall plant vigor on a scale of -1 to 1 (healthy, green crops approach 1).
- GNDVI (Green NDVI): Uses green light wavelengths to pinpoint leaf chlorophyll levels and gauge nitrogen uptake by the crop.
- Red-Edge NDVI: Leverages the red-edge band (just beyond visible red) to catch early stress signs that might not show in other indices – often spotting problems days before they’re visible on the surface.
What can multispectral scans detect? In short, signs of trouble before you’d ever notice them by eye. Research shows NDVI imagery can reveal crop stress up to 10 days before visible symptoms appear . This early warning means farmers can act quickly to address issues. For example:
- Pests or Disease Outbreaks: Infected areas of a field will register lower index values, letting you target a pest or fungal hotspot early before it spreads.
- Nutrient Deficiencies: If part of your corn, wheat, or vegetable field isn’t getting enough nitrogen or other nutrients, the lack of chlorophyll shows up in spectral data, so you can adjust fertilization by zone.
- Improper Fertilizer or Water Use: Multispectral maps reveal where crops are underperforming due to over-fertilization, drought stress, or waterlogging. You’ll see which spots are thirsty or overwatered, helping refine your irrigation and input use.
- Yield Improvements & Savings: By guiding targeted interventions (like treating only the affected acres), this technology boosts overall yields and cuts costs. In fact, precision farming with NDVI has been shown to increase crop yields by up to 20% through optimized resource use . At the same time, it prevents waste – reducing excess fertilizer or chemical sprays and benefiting both the farm’s bottom line and the environment.
(And no matter the crop – whether it’s a nationwide staple like corn, wheat, and soybeans or specialty produce in orchards and vineyards – multispectral imaging provides actionable health insights.)
Thermal Imaging: Turning Temperature into Insight
Thermal drone view of a pasture: warmer objects show as bright yellow-orange (e.g. an animal’s body heat) while cooler areas are purple/black. Hot spots or cold patches in a field can reveal issues like water stress, leaks, or even lost livestock.
Thermal cameras sense heat rather than light, mapping out the temperature of everything on the ground.
Each pixel in a thermal image corresponds to an exact surface temperature . By flying our DJI Matrice 350 drone equipped with a high-resolution Zenmuse H20T thermal sensor, we can scan entire fields (or search areas) quickly and detect even slight temperature anomalies that the human eye would miss. A plant under water stress, for instance, runs hotter than a well-watered plant – and a hidden irrigation leak makes the soil above it cooler. These differences jump out clearly in a thermal map, allowing for fast diagnosis. We can even spot the heat signature of a stray cow in dense crops or a missing person in a forest at night, which would be impossible to see with regular cameras.
How does thermal imaging help? It provides instant, actionable information for both agriculture and public safety:
- Precision Irrigation: Temperature maps pinpoint where soil is too dry or too wet. A cold blue patch might indicate a leaking irrigation line or shaded wet soil, while red-hot spots mean drought-stressed plants. Farmers can fix broken pipes and adjust watering schedules with confidence , ensuring every part of the field gets the right amount of water.
- Plant Stress & Disease: When crops get sick or lack water, their leaves often heat up (because they stop cooling themselves through evaporation). Thermal imagery catches those warm patches early, often long before leaves visibly wilt or discolor . This early alert lets you take action (watering, pest control, etc.) days in advance to protect yields.
- Livestock and Wildlife: Warm-blooded animals stand out like bright lights against cooler surroundings on a thermal drone scan. This means we can quickly locate escaped livestock on rangeland, find deer or other wildlife hidden in fields (preventing crop damage), and even monitor herd health from afar.
- Community Safety: Our veteran-led team also leverages thermal drones for search and rescue and disaster response. By detecting human heat signatures, we can help find missing persons at night or in dense terrain far faster than ground searches . After natural disasters, thermal maps help assess flooded areas, fire hotspots, or structural damage without risking personnel on the ground. (These dual-use capabilities reflect our mission focus – serving both farmers and the broader community when needed.)
In sum, thermal imaging gives you a real-time “heat map” of your operation. It’s fast, non-invasive, and incredibly revealing – providing a level of insight that was previously unavailable, and giving you eyes where you couldn’t see before .
Mapping & Orthomosaics: Accurate Aerial Maps for Planning
Orthomosaic map of farmland: Thousands of high-resolution drone images are stitched into one large, geo-accurate map. Farmers can zoom in to see individual rows, measure distances, and spot issues like drainage problems or crop variation across the field.
An orthomosaic map is a stitched-together, high-precision aerial photo – essentially a living map of your land that’s to scale. Using our DJI Matrice 350 RTK drone (with centimeter-level GPS accuracy) and advanced software like DroneDeploy, DJI SmartFarm, and Pix4Dfields, we capture hundreds of overlapping images of your fields from above. Specialized photogrammetry software then geometrically corrects and merges these shots into one seamless mosaic . The result is a true top-down view of your farm that’s free from distortion and accurate down to a few centimeters . In other words, you can make precise measurements directly on the map – it’s as if someone ironed your entire field flat and took a single ultra-detailed photo of it.
What can you do with these maps? Orthomosaic maps are more than just pretty pictures – they are practical tools for farm management:
- Measure and Plan: Instantly measure acreage, field boundaries, and distances with survey-level accuracy. Need to know if a new irrigation line will reach that corner of the field, or exactly how many acres of corn you planted? The map provides the answers without having to walk the fields with tape measures or GPS units.
- Monitor Crop Progress: By flying and mapping the same fields throughout the season, you can track crop growth over time down to the individual row or tree. Compare maps from planting, mid-season, and pre-harvest to see how different areas developed. This historical record helps identify patterns – for example, if a section consistently lags in growth, you can investigate soil or shade issues.
- Targeted Treatment Maps: We can generate variable-rate “prescription” maps to guide tractors or sprayers equipped with GPS. For instance, based on multispectral data, a prescription map can tell your fertilizer spreader to apply more in areas of low nitrogen and less where the crop is healthy, optimizing input use. These geo-referenced maps plug right into modern farm equipment for hands-free precision application.
- Identify Terrain Issues: The detailed imagery reveals erosion gullies, low spots where water pools, or areas of compaction. In fact, from the orthomosaic we can also produce 3D elevation models of your land. This is extremely useful for spotting drainage problems, planning terraces or levees, and improving soil conservation. You’ll literally see the high and low points of your fields and can strategize accordingly.
- Document and Share: High-resolution maps provide an excellent way to document crop conditions or damage for reports. Whether you’re working with crop consultants, applying for insurance claims after a storm, or planning field improvements, having an up-to-date, true-to-scale map is invaluable. You can also easily share these digital maps with partners or agronomists for collaboration.
In essence, our mapping service gives you a survey-grade picture of your farm whenever you need it. It takes the guesswork out of planning and lets you maximize every square foot. By seeing the “big picture” – and every small detail within it – you can farm smarter, respond faster, and make data-driven decisions that increase efficiency and yield.