The news this morning is that the county has found 300 marijuana plants
over the summer by helicopter.

Is there something about marijuana that makes it easy to identify from
the air, or could you do this with any plant of the same size?

Plant ID from the air seems in my experience pretty unlikely, but maybe
I'm not looking for the right clues.

--
Ron Hardin


On the internet, nobody knows you're a jerk.

In message , Ron Hardin
writes
The news this morning is that the county has found 300 marijuana plants
over the summer by helicopter.

Is there something about marijuana that makes it easy to identify from
the air, or could you do this with any plant of the same size?

Plant ID from the air seems in my experience pretty unlikely, but maybe
I'm not looking for the right clues.

This is absolute conjecture, but it could possibly be by infra-red
photography; I could imagine that a field of marijuana plants might be
easily distinguished from other vegetation by the wavelengths of
infra-red light it reflects.

But (going even further off topic...) do you know that the plants were
being cultivated outdoors? If they were being grown under artificial
light in someone's loft, then the helicopter's crew will likely have had
a thermal imaging camera, and gone out looking for houses which were
giving off far more heat than their neighbours.

cheers,
r
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In article ,
Robin Somes wrote:
In message , Ron Hardin
writes
The news this morning is that the county has found 300 marijuana plants
over the summer by helicopter.

Is there something about marijuana that makes it easy to identify from
the air, or could you do this with any plant of the same size?

Plant ID from the air seems in my experience pretty unlikely, but maybe
I'm not looking for the right clues.

This is absolute conjecture, but it could possibly be by infra-red
photography; I could imagine that a field of marijuana plants might be
easily distinguished from other vegetation by the wavelengths of
infra-red light it reflects.

But (going even further off topic...) do you know that the plants were
being cultivated outdoors? If they were being grown under artificial
light in someone's loft, then the helicopter's crew will likely have had
a thermal imaging camera, and gone out looking for houses which were
giving off far more heat than their neighbours.

My guess is that they noticed a suspicious pattern of cultivation, e.g.
a block of non-corn plants in the middle of a corn field. Corn (maize)
is a great crop to hide marijuana in because field corn grows so tall.

schreef
My guess is that they noticed a suspicious pattern of cultivation, e.g.
a block of non-corn plants in the middle of a corn field. Corn (maize)
is a great crop to hide marijuana in because field corn grows so tall.

***
That seems likely. There will be differences in colour and in height.
I assume that if you do this at the right time it will be quite easy.
PvR

In article , Ron Hardin wrote:
The news this morning is that the county has found 300 marijuana plants
over the summer by helicopter.

Is there something about marijuana that makes it easy to identify from
the air, or could you do this with any plant of the same size?

It's the way they lean back as the helicopter goes overhead and say things
like: "Hey man, is that a chopper or have dragonflies been getter
bigger?", then start giggling.

Roger

Ron Hardin wrote:
The news this morning is that the county has found 300 marijuana plants
over the summer by helicopter.

Is there something about marijuana that makes it easy to identify from
the air, or could you do this with any plant of the same size?

Not many other plants look like 15' tall neon green christmas trees.

Did the news say what strains the choppers had busted? Usually
it's worthless zero-potency ditch weed, by small town sherrifs
out for a bit of media exploitation ala J. Edgar Hoover. Look at
the pics. Do the plants look thin, scrawny, like bamboo? That's
not pot. That's fiber-grade hemp, probably descendants of escaped
plants from cultivation back in the 1920s.

The valuable potent strains, if grown outdoors, will be camouflaged by
bending, pruning, and leafing. So long as it doesn't look like an xmas

tree, it won't draw attention.

Plant ID from the air seems in my experience pretty unlikely, but maybe
I'm not looking for the right clues.

--
Ron Hardin


On the internet, nobody knows you're a jerk.