A Bibliometric and Visualized Analysis of Research Progress and Trends in Rice Remote Sensing over the Past 42 Years (1980–2021)

Rice is one of the most important food crops around world. Remote sensing technology, as an effective and rapidly developing method, has been widely applied to precise rice management. To observe current research status in field remote (RRS), a bibliometric analysis was carried out based on 2680 papers RRS published during 1980–2021, which were collected from core collection Web Science database. Quantitative number publications, top countries institutions, popular keywords, etc. conducted through knowledge mapping software CiteSpace, comprehensive discussions aspects specific objects, methods, spectral variables, sensor platforms. The results revealed that increasing institutions have great articles annually, among which, China, United States America, Japan three Chinese Academy Sciences, Zhejiang University, Nanjing Agricultural University first with largest publications. Abundant interest paid “reflectance”, followed by “vegetation index” “yield” objects mainly focused growth, yield, area, stress, quality. From perspective reflectance, vegetation index, back-scattering coefficient appeared frequently frontiers. In addition satellite data empirical models, unmanned air vehicle (UAV) platforms artificial intelligence models gradually become hot topics. This study enriches readers’ understanding highlights potential future directions RRS.