Using a Multispectral Camera to Tell Artificial Grass from Real Grass

To the human eye, real grass and artificial grass can look almost identical—especially when the plastic version is new and neatly laid.

But switch to a multispectral camera, and the difference becomes impossible to hide.

🌈 What a Multispectral Camera Sees (That We Can’t)

A multispectral camera captures light beyond visible colour, particularly:

• Red

• Near-infrared (NIR)

This is crucial, because living plants interact with light in a very specific way.

• Real grass absorbs red light for photosynthesis and strongly reflects near-infrared light.

• Artificial grass reflects light much more evenly and does not show the NIR “vegetation signature.”

(In this artificial grass, we can see the moss growing as it is a different colour)

🧪 The NDVI Test (The Dead Giveaway)

When multispectral data is processed into indices such as NDVI (Normalised Difference Vegetation Index):

• 🌱 Real grass shows up clearly as vegetation (bright tones in false-colour or NDVI maps)

• 🧱 Artificial grass appears dull, flat, or even indistinguishable from paths, roofs, or plastic surfaces

No chlorophyll = no vegetation signal.

🔍 Why This Is So Powerful

This technique is used routinely in:

• Agriculture (crop health & stress)

• Environmental monitoring

• Land-use mapping

• Urban heat and green-space studies

And it works just as beautifully at the scale of:

• A school field

• A garden lawn

• A playground

🌍 Why It Matters

Artificial grass is often marketed as “green” and low-maintenance—but multispectral imaging reminds us:

• It isn’t biologically active

• It doesn’t photosynthesise

• It doesn’t cool the environment like real grass

• It doesn’t support ecosystems in the same way

Looking green isn’t the same as being green.

🎓 In Education & Outreach

For teaching, this is gold dust:

• Photosynthesis becomes visible

• Abstract ideas like spectral reflectance suddenly make sense

• Students instantly grasp how satellites and drones classify land use

It’s one of those moments where science feels a bit like magic.