remote sensing

The Use of an Environmental Helicopter for the Monitoring of Agro-Ecosystems; 4-1992

Poster for European 'International Space Year' (ISY)
Conference in Munich, Germany, April 1992

1992-THE_USE_OF_ENVVIRONM_HC_A3.pdf
by H.Scheurer 1), Dr.Hanschel 2), S.Haisch 3), Dr.Boehm 3)

1) GSF-Forschungszentrum für Umwelt und Gesundheit GmbH
2) FAM-Forschungsverbund Agrar-Ökosysteme Muenchen
3) ECD-Eurocopter Deutschland GmbH

Main topic a the research network FAM is to evaluate Landuse changes in agroecosystems. The following steps are planned:

• Quantification of changes of the state and function of the agricultural ecosystems.
• Prognosis, risk analysis and evaluation of the changes of state function of the agri-cultural ecosystems.
• Development of strategies to avoid negative impacts in agroecosystems and neighbourind ecosystems by landuse and to restore existing damages.
• Transfer of strategies of sustainable agriculture to agriculture practise. As the basis to model feeding and modvalidation, remote sensing is a sensible and effective device. For achieving high resolution signature registration the Environmental Helicopter "EcoCopter" has proved to be an appropriate sensor platform. Advantage of the Helicopter - optimal flight altitude for overall area resolution - capability to hover - time flexibility in mearurment - high maneuverability - surface sampling - fills gap between satellites and ground station - Satellite sensor calibration with helicopter sensorics Advantage of Remote Sensing - optmal flight altitude for different area resolution - large area measurements - area averaged measruement - contactless data collection Primary parameter - spectral radiance - surface temperature - surface roughness - photos and video images - different gas concentrations Secondary parameter - crop type - vitality - biomass - soil moisture - evapotranspiration