Hyperspectral imaging, and in particular thermal remote sensing technology, in agriculture is gaining popularity in recent years, and it is being now refined for integration into precision farming. Aerial remote sensing can be used for agricultural nursery monitoring, irrigation scheduling, soil salinity detection, disease and pathogen detection, yield estimation, maturity evaluation and bruise detection.
Aerial inspection can replace the labor-intensive, time consuming and limited traditional methods. It can provide continuous spatial coverages 0f large areas at repetitive intervals. Various studies have shown that the thermal infrared is more sensitive to determine water stress than other reflectance in visible, NIR, or SWIR.
During plant-pathogen infection the physiological state of infected tissues is altered. Using hyperspectral images can identify these infections, as for example: powdery mildew, diseased leaves and yellow rust. Digital infrared thermography has the potential to identify and quantify the extent of infection, with high spatial resolution.