It has been a while since we posted any SALCA updates! A lot
has happened in that time and new people have joined the team. The SALCA Diary entries are now up-to-date and the
early entries are backdated.
December 2011 to January 2012
We carried out a range of experiments to examine the potential
of SALCA for measuring the water content (or equivalent water thickness) of
leaves. These were repeats of the experiments described earlier in the blog,
but with more leaves from a number of species. The results looked good and hold
promise for applications in monitoring water stress in vegetation.
Calibration experiments were also on-going, with Alberto
carrying out a range of valuable experiments to provide data for reflectance
and range calibration.
In mid-January, we held a workshop at Forest Research’s
Northern Research Station near Edinburgh, co-organised by Dr Juan Suarez, to
demonstrate SALCA and discuss the outcomes of the two NERC grants to develop
and test the technology. With a good turn-out from a mixture of organisations
and institutions some very interesting discussions were had and continued over
dinner. The workshop was SALCA’s first public appearance and thankfully there
was no stage fright, with demonstrations going well!
As the NERC small project grant came to a close, Alberto Ramirez left Salford in early 2012. To take up a position as a Research Associate at the
University of Leicester.
March – April 2012
The early results of the leaf drying experiments, showing a
clear relationship between a ratio of the intensity of the two wavelengths and
equivalent water thickness of the leaves, were presented at a Food and
Environment Research Agency workshop in York (FERA Remote Sensing Workshop –
Applications in the UK). These positive results open up possibilities for
applications of SALCA in monitoring forest disease, drought stress and fire
risk.
This was followed soon after by SALCA’s second public
appearance at the LiDAR:net Knowledge Exchange Workshop on Terrestrial Laser
Scanning, held at the University of Leicester from 2
nd – 3
rd
April, and co-organised by Mark Danson and Nick Tate from the University of Leicetser. There were around 50 attendees drawn from industry and academia. A review of the state-of-the-art in terrestrial laser scanning by
leading researchers was followed by demonstrations of SALCA alongside systems
from a range of commercial TLS manufacturers and many useful group discussions
on the potential of waveform lidar systems, TLS in general and some horizon scanning. The opportunity
for a Leicester curry was also not to be missed!
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| Mark Danson and Rachel Gaulton demonstrating SALCA at LiDAR:Net Knowledge Exchange Workshop |
