The test field chosen for this study is the Summerland Research and Development Centre (SuRDC). The site is located on the western shore of Okanagan Lake, south of Summerland urban center and bounded on the North and West by Trout Creek.
The case study itself will be carried out by performing two identical flights during each visit to the site.
The first flight will be flown when diurnal solar loading results in large temperature differentials between soil, fruit and ambient air – typically early to mid-morning prior to the surrounding soil normalizing to ambient temperature. A thermal infrared (TIR) camera will acquire data during the first flight, which will specifically target data on crop temperature.
A second flight will be flown relatively close to solar noon if possible (in order to minimize the effects of shadow) using a multispectral MicaSense sensor (green, red, red edge, near infrared) in order to collect visual and near infrared wavelengths that will be used to construct the vegetation indices for the project.