Thursday, November 8, 2007 - 9:45 AM
332-7

Near-Infrared Soil Spectroscopy: Results from a Commercially Available Spectrophotometer.

Eric Lund, Giyoung Kweon, Colin Christy, Chase Maxton, Kenton Dreiling, and Paul Drummond. Veris Technologies, Veris Technologies, 601 N. Broadway, Salina, KS 67401-2017

Recently, an on-the-go shank-based near infrared (NIR) spectrophotometer has become commercially available. This system incorporates two spectrometers to measure soil reflectance spectra from 500 nm to 2200 nm. A probe spectrophotometer utilizing the same spectrometers has also been developed. It collects insertion force measurements in addition to the optical data. Soil reflectance measurements in the NIR spectrum have been shown to relate to soil carbon, nitrogen, moisture, mineralogy, and other properties. Collecting high-quality NIR measurements requires instrument standardization, frequent reference measurements, and system performance monitoring. This study reviews the process used to accomplish on-the-go soil NIR measurements, and shows results of soil property calibrations from several fields.