Effect of Sensitivity Improvement of Visible to NIR Digital Cameras on NDVI Measurements in Particular for Agricultural Field Monitoring

Effect of sensitivity improvement of Near Infrared: NIR digital cameras on Normalized Difference Vegetation Index: NDVI measurements in particular for agricultural field monitoring is clarified. Comparative study is conducted between sensitivity improved visible to near infrared camera of CuInGaSe: CIGS and the conventional camera. Signal to Noise: S/N ratio and sensitivity are evaluated with NIR camera data which are acquired in tea farm areas and rice paddy fields. From the experimental results, it is found that S/N ratio of the conventional digital camera with NIR wavelength coverage is better than CIGS utilized image sensor while the sensitivity of the CIGS image sensor is much superior to that of the conventional camera. Also, it is found that NDVI derived from the CIGS image sensor is much better than that from the conventional camera due to the fact that the sensitivity of the CIGS image sensor in red color wavelength region is much better than that of the conventional camera.