Remember "junk DNA", the bits that we didn't understand and so considered it to be noise in the genome? We learn ever more about the functions such seemingly useless DNA segments perform even though they may not directly code for proteins and such. It's not junk anymore. That's not the only instance of such discovery.

The researchers have developed a technique that uses interference patterns created when GPS signals that reflect off of the ground -- called "multipath" signals -- are combined with signals that arrive at the antenna directly from the satellite. . . Since such multipath signals arrive at GPS receivers "late," they have generally been viewed as noise by scientists and engineers and have largely been ignored . . .

In one recent demonstration, the team was able to correlate changes in the multipath signals to snow depth by using data collected at a field site in Marshall, Colo. just south of Boulder, which was hit by two large snowstorms over a three-week span in March and April of 2009. . .

The new experiment is designed to analyze how the GPS signals traveling through alfalfa, corn and grass correlate with the amount of water in the vegetation. Small and CU-Boulder students have been cutting and weighing both wet and dry vegetation and matching the sample weights with comparative GPS multipath signal changes using a receiver set up at the farm. . .

"With this system, the GPS antenna allows us to see across a whole field, unlike individual moisture sensors that are sometimes set up to measure only small, specific areas," Munson said. If a farmer relied on data from only a single soil moisture sensor that happened to be in a particularly dry pocket of his crop field, for example, it could have a negative effect on the timing and quality of the harvest, he said. . .

All of the team's research efforts revolve around the water cycle, said Larson. "We want to know if the water is in the ground, in the snow or in the vegetation, and how much is evaporating into the atmosphere, since it will ultimately be returned to the Earth's surface through precipitation events."

There's a lot of information bouncing all around us if we can just learn to read it.

Working with Topcon’s core competency in optics and in cooperation with Yara International (the world leading manufacturer of nitrogen-based fertilizers), Topcon engineers designed CropSpec as a powerful crop canopy sensor. The Topcon system utilizes a two-sensor system (left and right side of the cabin) that allows a farm operator to monitor plant conditions and apply fertilizer and other inputs only as needed.

“This system will help revolutionize and simplify variable rate applications,” said Michael Gomes, director of agriculture business development. CropSpec sensors measure spectral reflectance using light from pulsing laser diodes focused on the plants. The reading can be correlated to measure chlorophyll content, which is closely linked to nitrogen in the plants. Scanning the crop creates a map to indicate relative canopy vigour.

The information can then be analyzed to determine crop areas that need treatment, construct prescription maps for later application, or immediately provide variable rate application enabling variable rate application in real time.

Perhaps a sufficiently experienced and knowledgeable farmer with very good vision could do something like this, but I suspect that it's more like the high pitched sounds that animals (and to a lesser extent, children) may be able to hear but adult humans can't. The information is all around us if we have the sensors to detect it and the knowledge to decode it.