Meet the Case Study: The test sites are located in Mandria Village – Paphos District (close to Paphos airport). It is expected to include 5 crop types and 15-20 farmers. A collaboration with the Agricultural Research Institute and Farmers Associations has already been established. The minimum size of each site must be at least 5×5 pixels (0.25 ha) and indicative crops that will be studied are potatoes, ground nuts, beans, alpha-alpha and chickpeas.
In-Situ Data:
Spectroradiometric and Crop height data collected during field campaigns. This includes several visits to the field which must cover all the phenological stages of the plants.
At the same time meteorological data are collected automatically through the meteorological stations giving useful information related to the weather parameters of the last 24 hours such as the temperature, humidity, wind, precipitation, etc.
- Earth Observation Products:
The goal is the retrieval of evapotranspiration (ETc) maps based on the following equation:
ETc = f (albedo, CH, LAI & Meteorological)
Specific algorithms will be developed for each crop type. Furthermore, other EO products will be produced as intermediate steps to retrieve the final product such as CH, LAI and NDVI maps.
- Parts of the SWSOIP:
SWSOIP Platform consisting from 1) the Front–end system: which will enable the communication with the end-users (farmers) and 2) the Back–end system: where all the processing procedures will be taken place.
SWSOIP Back-end system will communicate both with the meteorological stations and the Smart CropWATER Valve through the WISENSE Platform which was developed and owned by SignalGenerix Ltd. The meteorological data will be collecting and input to the SWSOIP Back-end system and the output of the water demand for irrigation for each crop type and field will be the output of the SWSOIP Back-end which will be transferred through the WISENSE platform and operate the Smart CropWATER Valve. Furthermore, the output will be communicated to the end-users (farmers) through the CropWATER Mobile-App as SMS.
EO Data Source:
Sentinel-2
The Sentinels are a fleet of satellites designed specifically to deliver the wealth of data and imagery that are central to the European Commission’s Copernicus programme.
Sentinel-2 is carrying a range of technologies, such as multi-spectral imaging instruments for land, ocean and atmospheric monitoring. It’s is delivering high-resolution optical images for land monitoring, emergency response and security services.
The mission is based on a constellation of two identical satellites in the same orbit, 180° apart for optimal coverage and data delivery. Together they cover all Earth’s land surfaces, large islands, inland and coastal waters every five days at the equator. The mission mainly provides information for agricultural and forestry practices and for helping manage food security. Satellite images can be used to determine various plant indices such as leaf area chlorophyll and water content indexes.
With its multispectral imager and wide swath coverage, the Sentinel-2 mission not only offers continuity, but also expands on the French Spot and US Landsat missions. Sentinel-2A was launched on 23 June 2015 and Sentinel-2B followed on 7 March 2017. Once launched, the European Commission assumes ownership of the satellites.
Each satellite has a high level of autonomy, so that they can operate without any intervention from the ground for periods of up to 15 days. This massive data blast results from the combination of the 290 km swath with 13 spectral channels incorporating four visible and near-infrared bands at 10 m resolution, six red-edge/shortwave-infrared bands at 20 m and three atmospheric correction bands at 60 m. The result is optical imagery that is the backbone for many applications in Earth observation.
Image: Copyright ESA / ATG medialab (Id: 336445)
Image: Space Data Highway. Copyright Airbus Defence and Space
Image: Copyright ESA (Id: 356169)
Sentinel-1
The Sentinel-1 imagery is provided by two polar-orbiting satellites, carries a 12 m-long advanced synthetic aperture radar (SAR), working in C-band. The advantage of radar as a remote sensing tool is that it can image Earth’s surface through rain and cloud, and regardless of whether it is day or night. Main applications are for monitoring sea ice, oil spills, marine winds, waves & currents, land-use change, land deformation among others, and to respond to emergencies such as floods and earthquakes. The ‘radar interferometry’ remote sensing technique combines two or more radar images over the same area to detect changes occurring between acquisitions.
The identical satellites orbit Earth 180° apart and at an altitude of almost 700 km, offering a global revisit time of six days. Sentinel-1’s radar can operate in four modes: Sentinel-1’s radar can operate in four modes: Interferometric Wide Swath (IW), Extra Wide Swath (EW), Wave (WV) and Stripmap (SM).
Landsat 8
The Landsat program is the longest running enterprise for acquisition of satellite imagery of Earth, running from 1972.
Landsat 8 (formerly the Landsat Data Continuity Mission, LDCM) is the most recently launched Landsat satellite which was launched on February 11, 2013. It is collecting valuable data and imagery used in agriculture, education, business, science, and government. Landsat 8 data has eight spectral bands with spatial resolutions ranging from 15 to 60 meters; the temporal resolution is 16 days.
The Landsat 8 satellite payload consists of two science instruments—the Operational Land Imager (OLI) and the Thermal InfraRed Sensor (TIRS). These two sensors provide seasonal coverage of the global landmass at a spatial resolution of 30 meters (visible, NIR, SWIR); 100 meters (thermal); and 15 meters (panchromatic). The spectral coverage and radiometric performance (accuracy, dynamic range, and precision) are designed to detect and characterize multi-decadal land cover change in concert with historic Landsat data. Cartographic accuracy of 12 m or better (including compensation for terrain effects) is required of Landsat 8 data products.
Landsat 8 includes evolutionary advances in technology and performance. The OLI provides two new spectral bands, one tailored especially for detecting cirrus clouds and the other for coastal zone observations, and the TIRS collects data for two more narrow spectral bands in the thermal region formerly covered by one wide spectral band on Landsats 4–7.
Image: Copyright NASA / Credits: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center