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ARS Home » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #121521
Title: DETECTING MARIJUANA USING OPTICAL WAVELENGTH REMOTE SENSING

Author
item Walthall, Charles
item Daughtry, Craig

Submitted to: New Technology in Agriculture International Symposium Proceedings
Publication Type: Proceedings
Publication Acceptance Date: 6/5/2001
Publication Date: N/A
Citation: N/A

Interpretive Summary:

Technical Abstract: Development of an optical wavelength remote sensing system to detect illici marijuana cultivation would greatly assist law enforcement agencies. The complexity of reflectance from the soil-plant-atmosphere system creates man impediments to the development of such a system. Remote sensing of vegetati must deal with the dynamic nature of the optics and morphology of plant growth, the effects of background reflectance on plant canopy reflectance, relatively low spectral contrast between different vegetation canopies, variations from the bidirectional reflectance distribution function, atmospheric effects and limitations of technology. Definitions and discussions of these issues are presented. Examples of marijuana leaf spect and other vegetation leaf spectra are also presented with a brief discussio of on-going spectral contrast analysis.