Date of this Version Remote sensing has long been used in
monitoring and analyzing agricultural activities. Well prior to
the first coining of the term ‘remote sensing’ in 1958 by Eveyln
Pruitt of the U.S. Office of Naval Research (Estes and Jensen
1998), scientists were using aerial photography to complete soil
and crop surveys associated with agricultural areas in the
United States and other parts of the world (Goodman 1959). Most
of such work in the 1930s involved general crop inventories by
the U.S. Department of Agriculture and soil survey mapping as
part of the work of the then U.S. Soil Conservation Service.
With new developments in infrared photography during World War
II, remote sensing techniques evolved that allowed for greater
understanding of crop status, water management, and crop-soil
condition.