From Smithsonian Magazine:
Water management researchers have been experimenting with unmanned drones that can fly over an orchard and record heat levels across vast swathes of land using aerial imagery. Thermal infrared cameras take thousands of images at regular intervals on a voyage across hundreds of acres. Computer software stitches the images together to create a super high-res image, in which each pixel can be read for temperature—cooler areas show up in cool tones, while warmer areas appear orange, red and yellow. In the aerial image here, powerlines, asphalt roads, metal towers cut across the picture in yellow. The scientists were experimenting with different levels of irrigation, which are visible in the patterns of blue and red across the tree canopy.
A thermal infrared image of orchard water levels
BTW, that's a very expensive-looking UAV called the mX-SIGHT from Autopilot Services and Systems in Germany.
Lots more in the original Smithsonian article here.
[Via The Verge]
Comments
This project was actually run by the university of Cordoba in 2009
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/07/090707094702.htm
Do they have a COA from the FAA or are they outlaws. Not like Jessy James or AL Cappone. But doing something responsibly for some ones benefit, without harming others,& without a law that allows it? For that matter, who allows laws to be allowed, or would that be us, not US. I don't know?