Drone-based Microwave Observatory of Subcanopy and Subsurface

Scarcity of water and its criticality for agriculture is a topic of increasing urgency as pressures on this fundamental resource continue to grow. Knowledge of the soil moisture is key to informed irrigation practices, yet probes are expensive and sparse. Current Earth observation technologies provide coarse (multi-km) observations of just the upper surface (0-5cm). The root zone soil moisture (to ~0.5m depth) reflects much more adequately the water available for plant utilization in the immediate to near-term. This information at a high spatial resolution is highly pertinent for precision management at the plot-scale and can be tailored for individual crop needs.We will build a drone-based root- zone soil moisture mapping radar capable of autonomous operation with a coverage of ~8000 acres per hour at ~20m resolution. In the long term, we envision that these maps will be available to field managers via a near-real-time web-based application to allow timely decision making about irrigation and harvesting, and therefore achieving optimal yield while minimizing water usage.