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Lab facilities

In addition to agronomic and remote sensing instruments, described below, our team has access to the analytical laboratories at UNIMI’s Environmental Sciences and Policy (ESP) and Agricultural and Environmental Sciences (DiSAA) departments for the physical and chemical analysis of soil and vegetation samples. Additionally, ASτER has dedicated space in the INDACO High-Performance Computing (HPC) cluster to power resource-intensive modeling, geospatial analysis, and remote sensing tasks. 

Field Instruments

Team involved in field activities and demonstrations of the use of the instruments available in the laboratory
  • ASD FieldSpec 4 Hi-Res Spectroradiometer 
    Our most valuable instrument is the workhorse of our field campaigns and supports a wide range of applications thanks to its broad spectral coverage from 350 to 2500 nm. This portable spectroradiometer provides high spectral resolution (3 nm in the VNIR and 8 nm in the SWIR), enabling precise characterization of spectral features in both contact and stand-off measurements. 
  • Hyperspectral Camera Drone Black Bird V2 
    This hyperspectral imaging sensor has 100 continuous spectral bands in the visible and near-infrared (VNIR) region, from 500 to 1000 nm (spectral resolution of 5 nm), and a spatial resolution of 540 x 540 pixels. Besides, this device includes a separate RGB camera with a higher resolution of 1800 × 1800 pixels. Its characteristics enable its use for the chemical characterization of vegetation (e.g. nitrogen).
  • DJI MAVIC 3 Multispectral 
    The device combined RGB (20 MP) and multispectral (4 sensors of 5 MP each) cameras to scan and analyze vegetation for its health assessment. The multispectral sensors operate in the green, red, red edge, and near-infrared regions. 
  • Specim IQ 
    This is a portable hyperspectral camera that works in the visible and near-infrared region (VNIR), ranging from 400 to 1000 nm specifically (7 nm spectral resolution). A practical application of the data generated is the spectral mapping of soil properties. 
  • LAI-2200C Plant Canopy Analyzer 
    It is an instrument that uses a non-destructive method to measure Leaf Area Index (LAI) in an accurate, fast, and easy manner, by comparing the radiation above and below the plant canopy. We use the data collected for vegetation structure characterization and remote sensing product validation. 
  • LI-600 Porometer 
    It measures both stomatal conductance and chlorophyll fluorescence of broadleaves. It helps us to understand how plants are performing and responding to their environment (e.g. plant stress). 
  • EGM-5 Portable CO2 Gas Analyzer 
    This gas analyzer utilizes non-dispersive infrared technology with automatic temperature and pressure compensation to precisely measure CO2 concentration (up to 100,000 ppm). The field measurements can be used to study carbon cycling and vegetation stress.