RADIOMETRIC PATTERNS AS A TOOL FOR SEPARATION OF 4 GRASS SPECIES UNDER CERRADO CONDITIONS

Research was conducted to establish the reflectance patterns of four p asture grasses: Brachiaria decumbens, Brachiaria humidicola, Brachiari a ruziziensis and Andropogon gayanus, in order to identify response fo r possible radiometric discrimination, their temporal evolution, and t o study the relationship between biomass and reflectance. The results indicate a good separability of the grasses into two groups: A. gayanu s and B. humidicola in the first group and B. ruziziensis and B. decum bens in the second one. A good correlation was found between reflectan ce and grass water content but no correlation was found between reflec tance and biomass for the grasses studied.