Plant Health Indices
Multispectral drone imaging for crop health data — NDVI, NDRE, LAI and other vegetation indices that flag stress, disease and nutrient deficiency before they’re visible from the ground.
Why drones over satellite:
- Higher resolution — closer detail than satellite imagery, useful for small leaves or micro-plot research
- Faster turnaround — flexible scheduling around weather or crop stage
- Better accuracy — flying low means less atmospheric interference than satellite data
- Flexible hardware — sensors can be changed as the job needs
- Repeatable — fly the same field at different growth stages to track change
How do you know which to use?
Your choice of vegetation index should be crop and intent-driven.
RGB sensors only render vegetation indices (like VARI or GLI) from visible light – basically what your eye registers, but with minute variations. Multispectral sensors such as the ones DroneScout uses, offer a multitude of vegetation index options from invisible infrared wavelengths, helping to reveal patterns not visible to the human eye.
NDVI
Normalized Difference Vegetation Index shows the amount of green vegetation
NDRE
Normalized Difference Red Edge Index shows the amount of green vegetation of permanent or later stage crops
SAVI
Soil Adjusted Vegetation Index is similar to NDVI but attempts to remove the effects of soil areas using an adjustment factor
EVI
Enhanced Vegetation Index is useful in areas where NDVI might saturate, by using blue wavelengths to correct soil signals
LAI
Leaf Area Index estimates foliage areas and predicts crop yields
NDWI
Normalized Difference Water Index shows the amount of water content in water bodies
