September 2021

Frost can be a huge problem for farmers, causing irreversible damage to their crops and significantly reducing the amount of yield that is produced. Although aids such as weather reports can give an indication of when local regions are likely to experience frost, they are not able to tell if and where the crops have been damaged. This is vital as farmers need to know exactly which areas to treat as soon as possible to reduce the impact of frost. This is where remote sensing comes in, which can highlight regions on the farm that crops are most likely to be damaged.

Managing frost damage is vital to the success of farmers that grow crops in areas prone to frost. With frost able to permanently damage crops and significantly reduce the amount of yield to harvest, it can adversely affect farmers and businesses relying on crops. Therefore, it is essential to monitor farms to detect damage early and treat affected crops to minimise loss of yield. This is where remote sensing can provide a trusted eye-in-the-sky for those seeking to monitor their crops as efficiently and effectively as possible. Equipped with sensors that collect data that is not visible to the human eye including infrared, satellite imagery can used to help detect frost damage early.

D-CAT has developed a frost damage detection service, which can highlight areas in paddocks that are likely to have been damaged by frost. Therefore, providing farmers with a tool to help make decisions on which crops and paddocks to treat.

An example of our frost damage detection service applied to a test paddock in South Australia during September 2019 is given below alongside ground truth of the paddock. The image on the left is the ground truth data highlighting that the bulk of the damage occurred at the bottom of the paddock. The image on the right gives the output of the frost damage detection service. Each pixel represents a relative risk of frost damage, with red highlighting the areas of the paddock that are most at risk of being frost damaged. The image closely resembles that of the ground image, with most of the high-risk pixels located at the bottom of paddock where the damage occurred.


Benefits

By using this service clients:

  • Have accurate frost damage risk maps that are ready to use and analyse over any area worldwide.
  • Can save valuable time with wide-area images and insights available without field scouting.
  • Gain valuable insights about their region of interest to help decision making.
  • Can save profit by harvesting damaged crop early before damage becomes irreversible.

Example Applications

Agriculture

From determining which crops/paddocks are affected by frost, to deciding how best to manage any frost damage. Monitoring crops with remotely sensed and then processed imagery gives farmers incredible insights into how to best manage frost damage.

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