The Use of the Soil Infrared Emissivity Parameters in the Prediction of the Soil Moisture and Scheduling Irrigation for Yellow Corn

Abstract

Afield Study was conducted at the University of Anbar Campus / Anbar Province during autumn season 2012 to predict soil moisture and scheduled the irrigation of yellow corn by measuring infrared emissivity of soil .corn seeds (var. 5018) were planted on 7/20/2012. Agricultural practices such as fertilization , plant protection ….. etc wereachieved according to the scientific recommendations , while the irrigation of the crop was scheduled after 60% depletion of soil available water.FLIR i7 camera was used to record each of the absolute soil temperature (Tk) and Digital Number (DN) in synchronous when soil moisture reached at the levels of field capacity , after 15% , 30% , 45% and 60% depletion of the available water.Freguency Domain Reflectometry (FDR) sensor was used to measure the pre-mentioned soil moisture levels. Data acquired from the camera were processed through using ERDAS IMAGINE software (ver. 8.4) . The relationships among volumetric soil moisture (Pv) , DN and Tkwere plotted by SPSS software (ver.19).The results showed that a significante regression(R2 = 0.944)between DN as aparameter for soil emissivity and soil moisture . Also , a significante regression (R2 = 0.990) was obtained between DN and TK . However , the relationship between soil moisture and temperature was unclear .The average seasonal consumption of water for yellow corn was about (835.0)mm during the execution year of the experiment and under its conditions.