Influence of sensor calibration on forecasting models for vineyard disease detection

Abstract

The evolution of vineyard diseases, such as downy mildew, are depending by temperature, humidity and rain. Fungicides are used to control these pathologies, with considerable economic costs, negative effects on environment, human health and wine quality. In order to identify fungicide sprays periods, several forecasting models were proposed. These tools require accurate knowledge of meteorological variables. These models give great contribution to farmers and technicians, nevertheless, do not consider the quality of the input data in terms of evaluation of measurement uncertainty and traceability to the reference sensors. The inclusion of the sensors' calibration and the influence of weather instrument positioning, affects the disease prediction up to 5 days. Therefore, the choice of instrument position and calibration procedure becomes a matter of importance in agriculture.