Patent ID: 11953872
Assignee: MANNA IRRIGATION LTD.
Field: Other special machines (Mechanical engineering)
Classification: CPC A  G  B  Y | IPC B  G

Claim 0:
1. A method for generating a near real time crop coefficient (Kc) for use in managing agricultural irrigation of a crop in a field or a subplot thereof the method comprising:
providing a computing environment comprising at least one computer processor and at least one computer-readable storage medium operably coupled to the computer processor and having program instructions stored therein and data specifying a boundary of the field and of at least one subplot, the computer processor being operable to execute the program instructions to generate a high resolution (HR) near real time (NRT) crop coefficient (HRKcNRT) at a time t (HRKcNRT)) by performing the steps of:
receiving remote sensing data from one or more high spatial resolution remote sensors at a time t, wherein the imagery data comprise values associated with a plurality of pixels, each pixel is equal to or less than 30 m×30 m;
computing a high-resolution Kc (HRKc) value for each pixel, the pixel being in its entirety within the boundaries of at least one subplot, using a remote sensing derived index to obtain a plurality of HRKc values;
selecting HRKc values equal to or greater than a number in the range of 0.15 to 0.3 from the plurality of HRKc values, to obtain a first set of selected HRKc values;
computing from the first set of selected HRKc values a first mean HRKc value (HRKc-M1) and a standard deviation (STD);
removing from the first set of HRKc values any of which is less than a first threshold being the sum of HRKc-M1 minus one STD to obtain a second set of HRKc values;
removing from the second set of HRKc values any of which is greater than a second threshold value being the sum of HRKc-M1 plus two STD's to obtain a third set of HRKc values;
computing from the third set of selected values a second mean HRKc value (HRKc-M2);

setting the HRKcNRT(t) to equal HRKc-M2;
computing an actual evapotranspiration (ETa) value;
setting an irrigation recommendation;
generating, as output data, the HRKcNRT(t), a near real time combined Kc(CKcNRT(t−tnx)) value, a forecast Kc (FKc) value, an actual evapotranspiration (Eta) value, irrigation recommendation or a combination thereof; and
delivering the output HRKcNRT, the ETa value or the irrigation recommendation to at least one of (i) a remote device of at least one user and (ii) at least one irrigation controller.