Quantification of Crop-Hail Losses by Aerial Photography

Abstract Experiments designed to evaluate the potential of infrared (IR) color and standard color aerial photographs to measure crop-hail losses were performed. Detailed post-storm field measurements of loss (by standard adjusting techniques) and actual harvested yields (control data) were used for comparisons. Studies were made from a damaging hailstorm and from simulated hail damage on corn test plots. Stereoscopic analysis of standard color film provided estimates of average field loss for corn and soybeans that were better than those derived from the “best” field adjusting that involved detailed sampling of 1 point per 5 acres. Badly damaged areas had unique “signature” on the photographs consisting of semi-circular areas of loss that suggest a hail-wind related series of vortices of 100–500 ft in diameter. Measurements of IR film density for the simulated hail-damaged corn at the 14-leaf and later growth stages also showed a good relationship with the amount of harvested corn loss, but a weaker relat...