Monitoring Global Crop Condition Indicators Using a Web-based Visualization Tool

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Monitoring Global Crop Condition Indicators Using
a Web-based Visualization Tool

• U.S. Department of Agriculture
• Foreign Agricultural Service
• Production Estimates and Crop Assessment Division
• Robert Tetrault, Crop Analyst

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Crop Explorer Overview
Global crop condition information for major
agricultural regions in the world can be
monitored using the web-based application called
Crop Explorer
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Production Estimates and Crop Assessment Division
To produce the most objective and accurate
assessment of the global agricultural production
outlook and the conditions affecting food
security in the world.

• History- Programs and archived data from 1979
  (LACIE-AgriStars).
• PECAD provides operational market intelligence to
  its customers, primarily USDA decision-makers
  during monthly lockup process.

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Crop Explorer FASs On-line Crop Condition
Information

• Easy-to-read crop condition information for most
  agricultural regions in the world.
• Crop Explorer automatically extracts crop and
  weather indicators from a database and provides
  that information graphically for users.
• The indicators are categorized by crop type,
  region and season.
• Weather and satellite-derived vegetation data are
  updated every ten days.
• Maps (areal extent) and charts (time-series) of
  important agricultural areas are created.

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Data Sources

• US Air Force
• Daily weather data.
• World Meteorological Organization
• Daily weather data.
• NOAA
• Almost daily satellite data for vegetation
  monitoring.

• NASA
• Twice daily satellite data for vegetation
  monitoring and periodic data for reservoir height
  monitoring.
• European Space Agencies
• 10-day satellite data for vegetation monitoring.

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Data Stored and Organized in CADRE

• CADRE (Crop Condition Data Retrieval and
  Evaluation) is a geospatial DBMS that stores
  daily weather data and satellite-derived data
  products.

• CADRE Data Historical Depth
• World Meteorological Organization (WMO) data
  from 1979.
• U.S. Air Force Weather Agency (AFWA) data from
  1981.
• Global Area Composites-Advanced Very High
  Resolution Radiometry (GAC-AVHRR) data
• 15-day composites from 1989.
• 10-day composites from 2000.
• SPOT-Vegetation (SPOT_VMI)
• 10-day composites data from 1998.

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Air Force Weather Data (AFWA)

• Daily AFWA Data Loaded Next Day
• 24-hour precipitation
• Actual and Potential ETP
• Maximum Temperature
• Minimum Temperature
• Snow Coverage
• Solar and IR Radiation

• PECAD Adds to CADRE
• Average Daily Temperature
• Cumulative precipitation
• Soil Moisture Model
• Crop Calendar Models
• Crop Stress (Alarm) Models
• Relative Yield Reduction Models
• Winterkill Wheat Model

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Automated Data Visualization Products for
Agricultural Regions Worldwide
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Agricultural RegionMarcos Juarez, Cordoba.
Argentinas Most Important Soybean Production
Area.
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Charts and Map Attributes/InternetEvery 10 days
849 attribute maps and 30,000 updated charts

• Seasonal Percent of Normal Precipitation
• Precipitation and precipitation percent of normal
• Average Temperature and departure from normal
• Maximum Temperature and departure from normal

• Minimum Temperature and departure from normal
• Percent Soil Moisture
• Surface Soil Moisture
• Subsurface Soil Moisture
• SPOT-Veg NDVI
• SPOT-Veg NDVI Departure from Normal
• SPOT-Veg NDVI Departure from Last Year

• Multiple growing seasons, starting with 2000.
• Weather and soil moisture data from AFWA and WMO.
  

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31 Regions/949 Sub-regions
Numerous Sub-regions in each Region
Queensland, Wheat Queensland, Cotton Queensland,
Barley Queensland, Sunflower Queensland, Sorghum
South Australia, Wheat South Australia,
Barley South Australia, Rapeseed
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Data Convergence

• Precipitation from two sources are aggregated
• Spatially (at the sub-region)
• Temporally (every ten days)
• Differences between the sources are charted every
  ten days and cumulative differences are recorded.
• Western Australia wheat areas has 13 mm
  difference in 140 days.

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New Products MODIS Rapid Response
NASA Partnership

• MODIS provides rapid views of agricultural
  regions.
• Two satellites (aqua terra) three resolutions
  (250m, 500m, 1,000m) two formats (jpg
  geoTiff) three band combinations (true color
  7,2,1 and NDVI).
• Images are available six hours after
  acquisition.

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MODIS Rapid Response

• Regional Summary describes where images are being
  acquired. Click on one of eight areas .

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MODIS Rapid Response

• Regional Summary describes where images are being
  acquired. Click on one of eight areas .

• Regional View allows user to choose
• Band Combination for MODIS Imagery
• Specific date
• Specific Resolution
• Download data to your GIS

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New Products Reservoir and Lake Monitoring
NASA Partnership

• Jason-1 Satellite provides near-real time
  altimeter data for heights of lakes and
  reservoirs.
• Large lakes (gt100 km2) in important agricultural
  regions are being monitored.

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Reservoir and Lake Monitoring

• Reservoir and lake heights are displayed in chart
  form for the last 12 years.
• The accuracy of the height variations are
  expected to be better than 10 cm.
• Currently, data for about 70 lakes on-line.

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Why?

• U.S. and international producers, traders,
  researchers, and the public can access weather
  and satellite information used by agricultural
  economists and scientists who predict crop
  production worldwide.
• Crop Explorer automates the processing and
  extraction of certain agro-meteorological
  indicators from the source data and provides that
  information graphically to users.

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Data Products Provided by Crop Explorer,Analysis
by Users

• Crop Explore provides quick overviews of crop
  condition parameters.
• Allows the crop analyst to spend more time on
  analysis and less time on data manipulation.
• GAC-NDVI and percent soil moisture for the same
  sub-region in Montana can be quickly looked at
  for insights into crop conditions.

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Combine Weather Information with Crop Information

• Where is the top producing area?
• Where are the marginal areas?
• Where are the vulnerable areas?
• What are the crop conditions for those areas?

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Top-Level Domain Types Using Crop Explorer in 2003

• Top users appear to be small enterprises (.net)
  or commercial companies (.com).
• .gov is less than 8
• .com is 33
• .net is 51 (assumed to be smaller companies or
  private individuals)
• Number of visits to Crop Explorer is increasing
  in 2004.

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Most Active Organizations
The most active organization is AOL.com. Below
is a list of select agribusinesses and foreign
governments who are using Crop Explorer.

• Foreign Governments
• Argentina (Ministry of Economics)
• Canada (Agrifood Canada)
• European Commission
• Japan (Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries)
• Ukraine (Ministry of Agro-Industrial Complex)
• UN (Food and Agriculture Org. FAO)

• Agri-Business
• ADM
• Australian Wheat Board
• Canadian Wheat Board
• Cargill
• Louis Dreyfus
• Harvest States
• Mars
• Monsanto
• Pioneer
• Toepfer

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Crop Explorer is part of U.S. Governments
Geospatial Portal
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Future Plans for Crop Explorer

• Integrate landcover data by applying croplands
  mask.
• Activate MODIS Rapid Response for northern
  hemisphere.
• Integrate MODIS 16-day composite NDVI into Crop
  Explorer.
• Improve Additional Resources availability
• Attaché Reports
• Crop Maps
• Crop Calendars
• Production Briefs
• Current Condition analysis
• Address outstanding issues.

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Issues List for Crop Explorer

• GAC-NDVI data was pulled from the site May 2004
  due to problems with NOAA-16 data.
• New GAC-NDVI datasets include NOAA-17 data.
• Review and publish.
• SPOT-Veg data processing broke in July 2004 due
  to both personnel problems and systems failures.
• Build redundancies in processing and provide
  backups in personnel.

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Remote Sensing Industry Issue

• Operational use of remote sensing relies on
  reliable and timely delivery of data products.
• Currently the data products for Crop Explorer
  have a variable lag time between 48 and 144
  hours.
• Fits within USDAs lockup schedule, just barely.
• New initiative aims for 6 hours.

USDAs Production Lockup Oct. 8, 2004
Available Oct. 7, 2004
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Contact Our Staff atProduction Estimates
Crop Assessment DivisionRoom 6053, USDA South
Building1400 Independence Ave., S.W.Washington,
DC 20250Tel [phone]Email
pecad_at_fas.usda.gov
Browse Our Extensive Web Content
athttp//www.fas.usda.gov/pecad/pecad.html
See Crop Explorer at http//www.pecad.fas.usda.go
v/cropexplorer/