A new approach combining microwave heat pulse and infrared thermography for non-invasive portable sap flow velocity measurement

•A new contactless heat pulse method was tested for sap flow measurement.•An external microwave device was able to generate an internal heat pulse.•Heat pulse velocity was determined by infrared thermography.•The assessed heat pulse velocity was strongly correlated with the controlled flow rate.•The relationship was the same for varying stem diameters. Xylem sap flow measurement is a key method to quantify plant water use and assess the responses to environmental conditions and climatic change. However, available methods are generally invasive and of limited portability. This paper presents a non-invasive approach called TIMFLOW that combines microwave heat pulse and infrared thermography, while having a high portability and versatility potential. The methodology was tested in laboratory conditions for black poplar (Populus nigra) stems of various diameters (10–45 mm) and for the known sap flow velocity range (10–100 cm h−1). The heat pulse was generated by microwaves with a power amplifier supplying a bi-quad antenna at 2.45 GHz frequency located near the stem. The scene was filmed using a relatively low-cost light and compact InfraRed (IR) thermography camera. A stem temperature map was used to determine the heat pulse propagation velocity. The calculated heat velocity was highly correlated with the applied flow velocity with a unique relationship regardless of the diameter. The latter result confirms the equation of Marshall (1958) which links the sap velocity to the heat velocity with a vessel fraction of around 25 % within samples. The feasibility of outdoor measurements was also successfully tested. The assumed potentials and limitations of the proposed methodology are discussed. In summary, the study demonstrates the concept and validates, in woody stems, this new methodology for non-invasive portable sap flow velocity measurement.