“…In this context, proper selection of spectral and spatial image resolutions, as well as the optimal timing, is crucial to achieve satisfactory results ( Peña et al., 2015 ; Khanal et al., 2017 ), which promotes the use of UAVs or manned aircrafts to the detriment of satellites in precision crop protection. Nonetheless, ML and satellite imagery can be useful in broad-scale applications, e.g., for evaluating integrated bacterial blight disease management in coffee plantations with several ecological variables ( Landsat-8 surface reflectance values and VIs, relief morphometry and hydrological attributes) by using RF, SVM and Naïve Bayes ( de Carvalho Alves et al., 2022 ), or for mapping cruciferous weed patches in multiple winter wheat fields with QuickBird satellite imagery by using MLC ( de Castro et al., 2013 ). Thermal and hyper-spectral aerial images with capability to capture slight variations in crop temperature and in narrow spectral bands associated to certain physiological indicators, respectively are commonly used in early detection of crop diseases, such as for identifying bacterial Huanglongbing (HLB) disease in citrus trees with stepwise regression, SVM, LDA and QDA ( Garcia-Ruiz et al., 2013 ), fungal Verticillium wilt (Verticillium dahlia) disease in olive trees with LDA and SVM ( Calderón et al., 2015 ), bacterial Xylella fastidiosa infections in olive trees ( Zarco-Tejada et al., 2018 ), and fungal yellow rust ( Puccinia striiformis ) across crop cycle in wheat with RF and CNN-based Inception-ResNet blocks ( Zhang et al., 2019a ).…”