Agricultural Drone Glossary
The agronomy, regulation, and drone terms that come up around Alberta farms — explained the way we explain them to growers.
AGL (Above Ground Level)
Height measured from the ground directly beneath the aircraft rather than from sea level — the reference Transport Canada uses for the 400 ft ceiling, and the setting that decides swath, pattern, and map resolution on every agricultural flight.
Read full definitionAs-Applied Map
The record of where product actually landed on a pass — built from the aircraft’s own logged flight track and rate data, as opposed to the prescription map that described where it was supposed to go.
Read full definitionCV (Coefficient of Variation) in Spreading
A single percentage that scores how evenly a spreader lays product across its swath — the standard deviation of the catch weights divided by their average. Lower is more even.
Read full definitionEffective Swath
The usable working width of a single drone pass — narrower than the raw spread width — set so that overlap from adjacent passes produces an even, gap-free application.
Read full definitionGCP (Ground Control Point)
A marked point on the ground whose real-world position and elevation have been surveyed, used to tie a drone photogrammetry model to actual coordinates rather than to the camera’s own estimate of where it was.
Read full definitionGranular vs Liquid Application
The two physical forms of input a drone can apply: dry granular product spread from a hopper, and liquid product sprayed from a tank. Granular spreading is an established drone service in Canada; liquid pesticide spraying is now permitted on an interim basis for products already registered for aerial application.
Read full definitionGSD (Ground Sample Distance)
The real-world size of one pixel in a drone map, usually quoted in centimetres per pixel. It is set by the camera and the height flown, and it decides what is small enough to be seen at all.
Read full definitionNDVI (Normalized Difference Vegetation Index)
A multispectral index (NIR − Red) / (NIR + Red) that ranges from -1 to 1 and quantifies how vigorous a canopy is — used in drone crop monitoring to spot stress before it is visible to the eye.
Read full definitionOFCAF (On-Farm Climate Action Fund)
A federal cost-share program that, in 2026, covers 50% of eligible drone purchases (up to $20,000) tied to cover-crop seeding in Alberta.
Read full definitionOrthomosaic
A single large aerial image built from hundreds of overlapping drone photos, geometrically corrected so every part of it sits at the right place and the right scale. It is the image a drone map is measured on.
Read full definitionPan Test (Pattern Test)
A field calibration where collection pans laid across a drone’s spread are weighed after a pass to map the deposition pattern and set the effective swath so the application comes up even, not striped.
Read full definitionPayload-to-Acre (Loads per Acre)
The relationship between a drone’s hopper weight and the target application rate, which sets how many loads it takes to cover an acre — the single biggest driver of flying time and therefore per-acre cost on a granular spread.
Read full definitionPrescription Map
A georeferenced map that divides a field into zones and assigns each zone a target application rate — the file a drone or floater follows to run a variable-rate job.
Read full definitionRTK vs PPK (GNSS correction methods)
Two ways to get centimetre-grade GNSS positioning on a drone: RTK corrects the position live during the flight over a radio or cell link, while PPK logs raw satellite data and corrects it afterward in software.
Read full definitionSclerotinia (Sclerotinia sclerotiorum)
A fungal disease of canola caused by Sclerotinia sclerotiorum that thrives in dense, humid canopies and is managed with a well-timed fungicide pass at 20–30% flower.
Read full definitionSFOC (Special Flight Operations Certificate)
A Transport Canada certificate authorizing drone operations that fall outside the Part IX standard rules — required for almost all agricultural spray and spread missions in Canada.
Read full definitionVRA (Variable-Rate Application)
Applying inputs — seed or granular fertilizer — at rates that change across a field according to a prescription map, instead of one flat rate everywhere.
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