Relationships between the Spatio-Temporal Variation in Reflectance Data from the Sentinel-2 Satellite and Potato (Solanum Tuberosum L.) Yield and Stem Density

Satellite Image Time Series (SITS) have been used to build models for predicting Potato (Solanum tuberosum L.) yields at regional scales, but evidence of extension of such models to local field scale for practical use in precision agriculture is lacking. In this study, multispectral data from the Sentinel-2 satellite were used to interpolate continuous spectral signatures of potato canopies and generate vegetation indices and the red edge inflection point (REIP) to relate to marketable yield and stem density. The SITS data were collected from 94 sampling locations across five potato fields in England, United Kingdom. The sampling locations were georeferenced and the number of stems per square meter, as well as marketable yield, were determined at harvest. The first principal components of the temporal variation of each SITS wavelength were extracted and used to generate 54 vegetation indices to relate to the response variables. Marketable yield was negatively related to the overall seasonal reflectance (first principal component) at 559 nm with a beta coefficient of −0.53 (±0.18 at p = 0.05). Seasonal reflectance at 703 nm had a positive significant relationship with Marketable yield. Marketable yield was modeled with a normalized root mean square error (nRMSE) of 0.16 and R2 of 0.65. On the other hand, Stem density was significantly related to the Specific Leaf Area Vegetation Index (β = 1.66 ± 1.59) but the REIP’s farthest position during the season was reached later in dense canopies (β = 1.18 ± 0.79) with a higher reflectance (β = 3.43 ± 1.9). This suggested that denser canopies took longer to reach their maximum chlorophyll intensity and the intensity was lower than in sparse canopies. Potato stem density was modeled with an nRMSE of 0.24 and R2 of 0.51. These results reinforce the importance of SITS analysis as opposed to the use of single-instance intrinsic indices.