2011 Annual Report 1a.Objectives (from AD-416) To conduct collaborative research with China National Engineering Research Center for Information Technology in Agriculture (NERCITA), and Heilongjiang August First Land Reclamation University (HAFLRU) for the scientists of three parties to mutually benefit in the research of 3S (geographic information system – GIS, global positioning system – GPS, and remote sensing – RS) and automatic control technologies for precision aerial application and to further develop the technologies under mutual interests. 1b.Approach (from AD-416) The collaborative works will be conducted jointly by Crop Production Systems Research Unit (CPSRU), Jamie Whitten Delta States Research Center (DSRC), Agricultural Research Service (ARS), United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), National Engineering Research Center for Information Technology in Agriculture (NERCITA), Beijing, China, and Heilongjiang August First Land Reclamation University. In general the collaboration will involve in research and development of 3S (geographic information system – GIS, global positioning system – GPS, and remote sensing – RS) and automatic control technologies for precision aerial application of crop production and protection materials. Specifically, the collaborative projects will cover the following aspects: a) remote sensing capability for crop management; b) aerial variable rate application; and c) aerial spray drift sensing. The collaborative research and development will be conducted for on-site experiments and analysis in the experiment base of NERCITA, Heilongjiang August First Land Reclamation University, China and the experiment fields of CPSRU in Stoneville, MS, USA. Under the NFCA (NonFunded Cooperative Agreement) the scientists from the three parties will mutually benefit in the research of 3S and automatic control technologies for precision aerial application and further develop the technologies under mutual interests. The research and development will be conducted at locations of all three parties. The results of the research will be shared by the three parties, and delivered as SCI (Science Citation Index) peer reviewed journal publications with mutual authorship. 3.Progress Report Research has been initiated to apply remote sensing with geographic information system (GIS) and global positioning system (GPS) technologies for identification of stress during the crop growth cycle. The crop stresses studied include herbicide damage, insects, water shortage, and crop disease, and field experiments are being conducted. Subsequent data processing and analysis are underway for peer-reviewed publications in science citation index (SCI) journals. This project has been monitored by the ADODR with emails and phone calls.