Remote sensing based crop growth stage estimation model

Crop growth stages are important factors for segmenting the crop growing seasons and analyzing their growth conditions against normal conditions by periods. Time series of high temporal resolution, up to daily, satellite remotely sensed data are used in establishing crop growth estimation model and estimate the growth stages. The daily surface reflectance data from Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) is used as the base data to calculate indices, form condition profiles, construct crop growth model, and estimate crop growth stage. Different crops have different condition profiles. To take into consideration of crop differences, models are built on each crop type. In the United States, ten major crops have been chosen to build crop growth stage estimation models using historical date tracing back to 2000 when MODIS launched. A kernel, double sigmoid model, is used to model the single mode crop growth season. The basic core model is double sigmoid model. The Best Index Slope Extraction (BISE) is applied to pre-filter the daily crop condition index. Estimated results have reasonably high accuracy, with root mean square error less than 10% on the state level evaluation.