Multivariate analysis of nitrogen content for rice at the heading stage using reflectance of airborne hyperspectral remote sensing

[Display omitted] ► Airborne hyperspectral remote sensing was applied to analyze the nitrogen content of rice at the heading stage using three-year data. ► The accuracy of two-year-models (TYM) was better than that of single-year-models (SYM) not only MLR but also PLSR models. ► Although the accuracy of SYM-MLR was better than that of SYM-PLSR, the accuracy of TYM-PLSR was better than that of TYM-MLR. ► PLSR model might be suitable to predict the nitrogen contents because not only the robust of PLSR models but also the sensitivity for inhomogeneous results. Airborne hyperspectral remote sensing was adapted to establish a general-purpose model for quantifying nitrogen content of rice plants at the heading stage using three years of data. There was a difference in dry mass and nitrogen concentration due to the difference in the accumulated daily radiation (ADR) and effective cumulative temperature (ECT). Because of these environmental differences, there was also a significant difference in nitrogen content among the three years. In the multiple linear regression (MLR) analysis, the accuracy (coefficient of determination: R 2, root mean square of error: RMSE and relative error: RE) of two-year models was better than that of single-year models as shown by R 2 ≥ 0.693, RMSE ≤ 1.405 g m −2 and RE ≤ 9.136%. The accuracy of the three-year model was R 2 = 0.893, RMSE = 1.092 g m −2 and RE = 8.550% with eight variables. When each model was verified using the other data, the range of RE for two-year models was similar or increased compared with that for single-year models. In the partial least square regression (PLSR) model for the validation, the accuracy of two-year models was also better than that of single-year models as R 2 ≥ 0.699, RMSE ≤ 1.611 g m −2 and RE ≤ 13.36%. The accuracy of the three-year model was R 2 = 0.837, RMSE = 1.401 g m −2 and RE = 11.23% with four latent variables. When each model was verified, the range of RE for two-year models was similar or decreased compared with that for single-year models. The similarities and differences of loading weights for each latent variable depending on hyperspectral reflectance might have affected the regression coefficients and the accuracy of each prediction model. The accuracy of the single-year MLR models was better than that of the single-year PLSR models. However, accuracy of the multi-year PLSR models was better than that of the multi-year MLR models. Therefore, PLSR model might be more suitable than ML