To get a bigger picture of canola’s growth cycle, University of Saskatchewan (USask) graduate student Hansanee Fernando is turning her attention towards the sky, past the whips of cotton clouds, and into space, where she is harnessing satellite imagery to help canola producers monitor and grow healthy crops.
“My PhD work aims to support farmers by identifying key growth stages and estimating yields, or how much the crop will produce, early on,” said Fernando. “I’m hoping to empower farmers to make informed decisions and optimize their management practices while potentially reducing costs, within the growing season.”
To achieve this, Fernando is collecting images from open-source satellites and using these to map large scales sections of farmland across Western Canada. While optical satellite imaging is a commonly used technique that captures clear, crisp pictures of the Earth below—like you’d see on an online map—there are certain limitations that prevent researchers from collecting certain types of data using these satellites. Fernando, instead, is using radar images on top of optical images, a promising technique in agricultural mapping that can catch complementary details over large areas of land.
“Using radar for agriculture is relatively new and with it we can see the whole picture, not just the colour of crops, but also the structure of the crops grown,” said Fernando. “Optical imaging doesn’t work well in rain or cloud cover, while radar can penetrate through the clouds to give you the full picture. So, you could capture 10 out of 10 images with radar while with optical you may only get three out of 10 on a cloudy day.”