Location: Hydrology and Remote Sensing Laboratory
Project Number: 8042-13610-030-010-I
Project Type: Interagency Reimbursable Agreement
Start Date: Feb 27, 2017
End Date: Sep 30, 2021
Objective:
To develop a multi-sensor evapotranspiration (ET) mapping tool that can be run routinely by the Ernest and Julio Gallo remote sensing team at low (375 m to 1 km) resolution for regional assessments and at higher resolutions (~30 m) over targeted wine grape growing regions for field scale monitoring. It will also be used at very fine resolutions (sub-meter) for canopy level assessments when airborne or Unmanned Aerial Vehicle data are available. The ET toolkit will be integrated into Ernest and Julio’s irrigation management decision support system for improving grape quality and more efficient irrigation strategies.
Approach:
In collaboration with University of Maryland (UMD) Co-I, the evapotranspiration (ET) modeling system has been integrated within a data fusion methodology to combine frequent (~1/2 hourly) coarse (3-5 km) pixel resolution remote sensing information from geostationary satellites with less frequent (daily to bi-weekly) moderate (1 km) to field scale (30-100 m) resolution polar orbiting satellites to produce ET datasets with both high spatial and temporal resolution. Improvements in the methodology during certain periods of the growing season will be made by UMD and Hydrology and Remote Sensing Lab (HRSL) teams, which will be facilitated by the collection and analysis of high resolution (sub-meter) remote sensing data from unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) by Co-Is from Utah State University identifying vine versus inter-row crop water use and vine condition and stress as part of Grape Remote sensing Atmospheric Profiling and Evapotranspiration eXperiment (GRAPEX) supported by partner Ernest and Julio (E&J) Gallo. PI and Co-Is of the Hydrology and Remote Sensing Lab (HRSL) will work with E&J Gallo staff in order to integrate the ET products generated by the proposed remote sensing-based modeling tools into E&J Gallo’s irrigation decision management system. The new ET products will be evaluated by E&J Gallo and HRSL using validation data from GRAPEX. Impacts on water use, grape yield and quality from this enhanced irrigation management tool kit will be evaluated by E&J Gallo partners.
