- What Happens If I Miss a Spot While Scanning With the Array Mount?

When using the turfRad Array Mount - with two sensors mounted on both sides of a utility vehicle - two common questions arise:

1. What happens if a small swath of the fairway is missed during scanning?
2. What happens to the area between the two sensor footprints?

Below is a clear explanation of how turfRad handles both situations.

1. Missing a Small Area During a Scan

If you accidentally miss a small swath of a fairway, turfRad automatically fills in those missing values using surrounding measurements. This process - called interpolation - creates a continuous moisture map even when minor gaps occur.

When is a gap actually shown on the map?

A visible gap will only appear if:

• The missed area is too large for interpolation, or
• The distance between passes exceeds the recommended coverage width.

As shown in the graphic below, if the distance between your two scanning passes is greater than ~5 meters (16.5 ft), the system will display a clear gap in the moisture data.
This acts as helpful feedback: you can simply re-scan that section if needed.

2. What About the Space Between the Two Sensors?

The small center area, between the two sensor footprints, is filled in using interpolation based on both sensors’ readings.

This ensures that:

• The entire scanning width is covered
• Moisture values transition smoothly across the full map
• No precision is lost in the center zone

Two sensors are preferred over three because it avoids GPS crossover, keeps spacing consistent, and ensures physics-based interpolation fills the center zone accurately, without missing wet or dry areas.

Best Practice Tips

• Keep pass spacing within 5 meters (16.5 ft) for complete coverage.
• Mount sensors according to the recommended height and spacing for optimal footprint geometry. Find our on Array Mount here: Notes on Array Mounting