Data products
Here's a description of the data products we currently support.
Growth
Biomass
Unit of measurement: kg/ha/week
Biomass Production is the dry matter increase of your crop, per week. It includes roots, shoots, fruits, twigs, leaves and all in between (including cover crop). It is strongly influenced by crop condition, moisture availability and climatic circumstances. It does NOT represent the total absolute amount of biomass on a field, it is a measure of growth per week.
The Biomass Production can vary between no production all the way up to 2,500 kg/ha/week. Younger crops will produce less biomass than full bearing crops. Small variations in biomass production from week-to-week are likely. These are most likely caused by variation in meteorological conditions. For example, during a cloudy week less energy for photosynthesis causes the biomass production to drop. Excellent weather conditions for crop growth cause the biomass production to increase.
Accumulated biomass
Unit of measurement: kg/ha
Accumulated Biomass Production is the combined dry matter production since the beginning of the growing season.
It's important to realize that the value of any accumulated product can only be calculated during the timespan of a growing season.
Potential biomass
Unit of measurement: kg/ha/week
Potential biomass represents the amount of dry matter that could be formed under actual meteorological conditions and ample water supply.
Leaf Area Index (LAI)
A snapshot of the area of canopy compared to the area of soil. Literally the green leaf area per unit of ground surface area.
NDVI
Unit of measurement: a number between 0 and 1
The Vegetation Index (= NDVI) is an indicator of the vitality of your crop. It results from reflection in Red and Near-Infrared light. A high index means healthy, vigorous and dense vegetation. It is strongly influenced by chlorophyll content and the cell structure of leaves.
The Vegetation Index of cropped land normally has a value between 0.2 and 0.9. The Vegetation Index is affected by all plants growing on that patch of land, including cover crop, weeds and your crop itself.
Yield
Available only for Sugarcane
Unit of measurement: t/ha
Here follows a description based on sugarcane. Yield calculation requires a specialized model per crop, and is available for a few types of crop. One can be developed for other types as well.
Yield (Standing Cane Monitoring) quantifies the amount of harvestable stalk material accumulated by the day of the estimate. The growing degree days are used to define the phenological phase (time) time when the stalks begin to accumulate biomass and from this point onwards stalk biomass is accumulated. This parameter is expressed as t/ha . This data is spatial with a resolution of 10 m.
Yield forecast
Available only for Sugarcane
Yield forecast on week W shows how the eventual yield (at the end of the season) was predicted to be at the time of week W.
Yield forecast is based on the yield model describing the influence of crop phenology and meteorological conditions on sugarcane yield. Therefore, the forecast is predicted from two separate model inputs: meteorological data and crop phenology. Crop phenological metrics (minimum NDVI value, seasonal amplitude, length of the growth phase and the timing of the inflection point) are used for NDVI model parameterization. The yield forecast parameter provides a prediction of the future attainable sugarcane yield at month 12 . Each week from month 4 up to harvest, a forecast value is calculated and expressed as t/ha in month 12 . This data is averaged at field level.
Yield forecast is not available as raster image.
Moisture
(Actual) Evapotranspiration
Unit of measurement: mm/week
How much water is used to produce crops each week? Includes crop, cover crop, and weed transpiration, as well as evaporation from the soil surface.
Evapotranspiration (ET) is the sum of the amount of water that is evaporated from the soil (E) and the amount of water that is lost through transpiration by the crop, cover crop, and/or weeds(T). Where non‐consumed water can be recaptured for downstream use or replenishes the groundwater, water consumed by evapotranspiration cannot. It represents the actual amount of water lost in the crop production process and is expressed in mm/week.
Actual Evapotranspiration (ET) is the sum of the amount of water that is evaporated from the soil (E) and the amount of water that is lost through transpiration by the crop.
Where non-consumed water can be recaptured for downstream use, or replenishes the groundwater, water consumed by evapotranspiration cannot. It represents the actual amount of water consumed during the crop production process and is expressed in mm/week.
A video tutorial on evapotranspiration and evapotranspiration deficit
Accumulated evapotranspiration
Unit of measurement: mm
Accumulated Evapotranspiration is the combined evapotranspiration since the beginning of the growing season.
It's important to realize that the value of any accumulated product can only be calculated during the timespan of a growing season.
Potential evapotranspiration
Unit of measurement: mm/week
Potential evapotranspiration represents the amount of water that could be evaporated and transpired under actual meteorological conditions and ample water supply.
Where actual evapotranspiration (ETact) is the real crop water use on a certain day, the potential evapotranspiration (ETpot) represents the amount of water that could be evaporated and transpired under actual meteorological conditions and ample water supply.
Evapotranspiration deficit
The difference between ETact and ETpot reflects the crop shortfall in what it can potentially achieve, this is called the absolute evapotranspiration deficit (ETdef). A high deficit means plants are experiencing water and/or other stresses.
A video tutorial on evapotranspiration and evapotranspiration deficit
Water Use Efficiency
Unit of measurement: kg/m3
How efficiently are plants using water? This shows how much biomass is produced per unit of water consumed by evapotranspiration.
A video tutorial on Water Use Efficiency
Minerals
Mineral nutrients are the food that the crops need to grow and are equally as important as the moisture and growth parameters. Fruitlook measures the amount of nitrogen present in the aboveground part of your crop. Nitrogen is the fuel for your crop and an indication for fertilization. These parameters give an impression of the distribution of the minerals within the blocks.
A total diverse diet for the plant exists of a total of 16 elements that are essential for the growth and full development of crops. When these nutrients are deficient it is impossible for the plant to complete the vegetative or reproductive stage of its life cycle. Such deficiency is specific to the element in question and can be prevented or corrected only by supplying this element. Out of these 16 elements, carbon (C) and oxygen are obtained from the gas CO2, and hydrogen (H) is obtained from water (H2O). The other 13 elements are called mineral nutrients because they are taken up in mineral (inorganic) forms. Nitrogen is the most abundant mineral nutrient in plants; 2–4 percent of a plant's dry matter is Nitrogen. It is a part of chlorophyll (the green pigment in leaves) and is an essential constituent of all proteins. It is responsible for the dark green color of stem and leaves, vigorous growth, branching/tillering, leaf production, size enlargement, and yield formation. When too little Nitrogen is available it will negatively impact the growth rate. N-deficient plants might be shorter, have smaller leaves, leaves become yellow, and look different from the healthy crop you were expecting. In a case of severe deficiency, leaves turn brown and die, this way crop yield will be reduced.
Nitrogen leaves / Nitrogen in leaf
Unit of measurement: kg/ha
A snapshot of the amount of nitrogen in the total leaf surface of your crop. Directly measured in kilograms per hectare.
A video tutorial on Nitrogen in leaf
Nitrogen plant canopy / Nitrogen in upper leaf layer
Unit of measurement: kg/ha
The nitrogen that is present in the upper leaf layer, this parameter shows a snapshot in kilograms per hectare.