The initiative, which will provide a decision-making tool for irrigation management, contemplates the validation of remotely detected data through a Field Group of more than 70 people, led by ULS researcher Héctor Maureira, who, coinciding with the passage of the aircraft, will carry out measurements and take samples of soil and vegetation in various types of agricultural fields.

Juan Soldado, Callegari, La Alpina and Las Cardas will be the four points that will be measured, as last year, by the UAVSAR (Uninhabited Aerial Vehicle Synthetic Aperture Radar) mission, an unmanned aerial vehicle with NASA synthetic aperture polarimetric radar that will fly over the Coquimbo Region on Saturday, April 26 as part of an initiative promoted by the head of the Central Laboratory for Analysis and Applied Research of the University of La Serena, Mg. Héctor Maureira Castillo, whose purpose is to carry out soil moisture measurements through radar remote sensing. 

Added to the aforementioned sampling points this year are the Tabalí and Tamaya vineyards, whose crops were chosen to develop a new project that will be carried out by scientists from NASA and the United States Department of Agriculture Research Service, among them, Bill Kustas and Martha Anderson, and which considers the Creation of a Water Management Model for a crop, using satellite data, which will provide a decision-making tool for irrigation management, through maps of Evapotranspiration, Temperature and Humidity of Soil and Vegetation, and Water Stress. 

The proposed studies will be carried out simultaneously in California (USA) and in Chile (Coquimbo Region) and their objectives are to determine how space or airborne remote sensing can be used by wine producers to increase the yield and quality of the crop on key parameters such as sugar content, bunch density and susceptibility to mold growth; determine the appropriate arrangement of remote sensing data considering radiometric and spatial resolution and revisit period; and evaluate the efficiency of the integrated array of satellite sensors and the data obtained in the field to improve the decision-making process of the viticulturist and increase the profits of the vineyard.

''As a first measure, this project will make it possible to measure the generation of this model in a vine crop, because it has a higher value-added crop and a much closer management to produce a good response in the amount, for example, of sugar from the vineyard (...). It will allow us to generate Evapotranspiration maps that have a pixel size and information of 10 meters. This means that you can find out all the Evapotranspiration information that exists in a specific terrain; once this Evapotranspiration is established, irrigation management can be carried out and therefore we can optimize the use of water'', explained the ULS researcher, Mg. Héctor Maureira, who added that it would be the first time that this water management model is used in Latin America, which could also be expanded to other crops or natural plant covers, evaluating the degree of water stress of vegetables, creating drought maps, their monitoring, trend observation, increase forecast possibilities and guide and optimize aid in the region.

Terrain Group

For the validation of the data remotely detected by the L-band synthetic aperture radar, a Ground Crew of more than 70 people has been formed, which, coinciding with the passage of the aircraft, will carry out measurements and take sample of soil and vegetation in agricultural fields of various types: dry soils with vegetation, dry soils without vegetation and soils irrigated with vegetables with different degrees of vegetable cover and different crop management. In addition, they will carry out the same operation in the Tabalí and Tamaya vineyards.

The field group was organized under the direction of Professor Héctor Maureira Castillo and has the collaboration of professionals and undergraduate students from the University of La Serena, Universidad Católica del Norte, Universidad Mayor, Center for the Study of Natural Resources Oterra, Institute and Santo Tomas Technical Training Center, University of Chile - Ceza Arid Zones Study Center, Chilean Army-Regiment No. 21 Coquimbo, Chilean Navy-Coquimbo Maritime Governorate, Chilean Investigative Police, Ministry of Public Works, Agrícola Callegari Ltda., Agrícola La Alpina Ltda., Viña Tabalí SA and Viña Tamaya SA. In addition, it sponsors the Compañía Minera del Pacífico initiative.

On the part of the farmers, there is the collaboration of the Los Maitenes farms of Agrícola Callegari, Juan Soldado and La Alpina of Carlos Erler, and with the field of the Las Cardas Experimental Center of the Center for Studies of Arid Zones (CEZA) of the University of Chile. 

The measurements that will be made in the field are soil moisture, soil temperature, biomass, apparent density, texture and morphology of the terrain; and will be validated with the radar data obtained by the mission. 

UAVSAR

The UAVSAR is a polarimetric L-band radar sensor that is transported on a Gulfstream-III 502 jet that has an autopilot that controls the aircraft and has the ability to fly the same trajectory, both in height and direction, as many times as necessary. , within a range no greater than 10 meters. (33 feet), allowing with this, in addition, to carry out multitemporal interferometric measurements. The UAVSAR radar is placed in a container that is installed under the aircraft. 

The Nasa-UAVSAR mission constitutes a test of the sensors that is being carried out through various places on Earth to validate those that will be incorporated into the SMAP (Soil Moisture Activ Passiv) satellite that will be launched on November 5, 2014. with which periodic measurements of soil humidity of the entire planet will be obtained, serving as a basic input for the creation of models of humidity and drought, which will allow us to understand, together with other data, the climatological processes that our region undergoes, exposed to currently, to a long period of drought.