Winter wheat, winter rape and poppy crop growth evaluation with the help of remote and proximal sensing measurements

Monitoring of agricultural crops with the help of remote and proximal sensors duringthe growing season plays important role for site-specific management decisions. Winter wheat,winter rape and poppy are representatives of typical agricultural crops from the family Poacea,Brassicaceae and Papaveraceae, growing in relative dry area of Rakovník district in the CzechRepublic. Ten Sentinel 2 satellite images acquired during vegetation season of the crops weredownloaded and processed. Crops were monitored with the help of unmanned aerial vehicles(UAV) equipped with consumer grade Red Green Blue (RGB) camera and multispectral (MS)MicaSense RedEdge MX camera. In-field variability was assessed by computing RGB-basedvegetation indices Triangular Greenness Index (TGI), Green Leaf Index (GLI) and VisibleAtmospherically Resistant Index (VARI) and commonly used vegetation indices as NormalisedDifference Vegetation Index (NDVI) and Green NDVI (GNDVI). The results derived fromsatellite and UAV images were supported with in-situ measurements of hand-held GreenSeekerand Chlorophyll Meter Content sensors. The study showed the usability of individual vegetationindices, especially the TGI index for chlorophyll content estimation, and VARI index for greenvegetation fraction detection and leaf area index estimation, in comparison with selected handheld devices. The results showed as well that leaf properties and canopy structure of typicalcharacteristics of selected families can significantly influence the spectral response of the cropsdetected in different phenological stages.