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ACS-430The Crop Circle ACS-430 active crop canopy sensor provides classic vegetative index data as well as basic reflectance information from plant canopies and soil.

Unlike passive radiometric light sensors, the Crop Circle ACS-430 is not limited by ambient lighting conditions— measurements can be made day or night due to its unique, light source technology.

For on-the-go applications, the Crop Circle ACS-430 sensor can be mounted to virtually any type of vehicle to remotely sense and/or map plant or crop canopy biomass while driving through a field. The compact size and low weight design allows Crop Circle to be easily adapted to pole-mounted and handheld applications. Information produced by the sensor can be utilized to quantify the impact of nutrients, water, disease or other growing conditions on plants or crops.

MULTI-CHANNEL SPECTRAL MEASUREMENT

The ACS-430 incorporates three optical measurement channels. The sensor simultaneously measures crop /soil reflectance at 670 nm, 730 nm and 780 nm. A unique feature of the ACS- 430 sensor, unlike any other active sensor on the market, is its ability to make height independent spectral reflectance measurement. Holland Scientific refers to these reflectance measurements as Pseudo Solar Reflectances (PSR). This means each spectral reflectance band are scaled as percentages and will not vary with sensor height above a target. This opens the possibility of using literally dozens of vegetative indices that do not use ratio based calculations.

COLLECT DATA EASILY

Using the Holland Scientific GeoSCOUT GLS-400 datalogger, data can be easily and quickly recorded to a text file on an SD flash card. Additionally, by connecting a GPS receiver to the GeoSCOUT, data collected from the ACS-430 can be georeferenced and stored for later analysis in third party GIS software.

POTENTIAL USERS

  • Federal, state and corporate researchers
  • Crop consultants
  • Producers
  • Golf course superintendents
  • Plant physiologists/biologists
Key Sensor Features
» 3 measurement channels: 670nm, 730nm and 780 nm
» Computes height independent absolute reflectances
» Make measurements day or night
» Measurements not influenced by fluorescent or other AC light sources
» Wide measurement range— 0.25 m to 2.0 m
» Rugged IP68 packaging— dust and water resistant
» Low noise performance
» Fast data output rate
» Low power operation
» Light weight < 0.43kg

ACS-470 In Field

Research Applications
» Crop response to nutrient and fertilizer studies
» Herbicide effect/ performance studies
» Noninvasive plant biomass quantification
» Trend/detect plant health changes
» Early disease detection
» Leaf senescence studies
» Turf and agricultural landscape mapping
» Hybrid selection
» Develop nutrient recommendations/ models based on comparative local standards
» Foragable biomass prediction