Building a Data Set over 12 Globally Distributed Sites to Support the Development of Agriculture Monitoring Applications with Sentinel-2

Developing better agricultural monitoring capabilities based on Earth Observation data is critical for strengthening food production information and market transparency. The Sentinel-2 mission has the optimal capacity for regional to global agriculture monitoring in terms of resolution (10–20 meter), revisit frequency (five days) and coverage (global). In this context, the European Space Agency launched in 2014 the “Sentinel­2 for Agriculture” project, which aims to prepare the exploitation of Sentinel-2 data for agriculture monitoring through the development of open source processing chains for relevant products. The project generated an unprecedented data set, made of “Sentinel-2 like” time series and in situ data acquired in 2013 over 12 globally distributed sites. Earth Observation time series were mostly built on the SPOT4 (Take 5) data set, which was specifically designed to simulate Sentinel-2. They also included Landsat 8 and RapidEye imagery as complementary data sources. Images were pre-processed to Level 2A and the quality of the resulting time series was assessed. In situ data about cropland, crop type and biophysical variables were shared by site managers, most of them belonging to the “Joint Experiment for Crop Assessment and Monitoring” network. This data set allowed testing and comparing across sites the methodologies that will be at the core of the future “Sentinel­2 for Agriculture” system.

Instituto de Clima y Agua

Fil: Bontemps, Sophie. Université Catholique de Louvain. Earth and Life Institute; Bélgica

Fil: Arias, Marcela. Universite de Toulose - Le Mirail. Centre d’Etudes Spatiales de la BIOsphère; Francia

Fil: Cara, Cosmin. CS Romania S.A.; Rumania

Fil: Dedieu, Gérard. Universite de Toulose - Le Mirail. Centre d’Etudes Spatiales de la BIOsphère; Francia

Fil: Guzzonato, Eric. CS Systèmes d’Information; Francia

Fil: Hagolle, Olivier. Universite de Toulose - Le Mirail. Centre d’Etudes Spatiales de la BIOsphère; Francia

Fil: Inglada, Jordi. Universite de Toulose - Le Mirail. Centre d’Etudes Spatiales de la BIOsphère; Francia

Fil: Matton, Nicolas. Université Catholique de Louvain. Earth and Life Institute; Bélgica

Fil: Morin, David. Universite de Toulose - Le Mirail. Centre d’Etudes Spatiales de la BIOsphère; Francia

Fil: Popescu, Ramona. CS Romania S.A.; Rumania

Fil: Rabaute, Thierry. CS Systèmes d’Information; Francia

Fil: Savinaud, Mickael. CS Systèmes d’Information; Francia

Fil: Sepulcre, Guadalupe. Université Catholique de Louvain. Earth and Life Institute; Bélgica

Fil: Valero, Silvia. Universite de Toulose - Le Mirail. Centre d’Etudes Spatiales de la BIOsphère; Francia

Fil: Ahmad, Ijaz. Pakistan Space and Upper Atmosphere Research Commission. Space Applications Research Complex. National Agriculture Information Center Directorate; Pakistán

Fil: Bégué, Agnès. Centre de Coopération Internationale en Recherche Agronomique pour le Développerment; Francia

Fil: Wu, Bingfang. Chinese Academy of Sciences. Institute of Remote Sensing and Digital Earth; República de China

Fil: De Abelleyra, Diego. Instituto Nacional de Tecnología Agropecuaria (INTA). Instituto de Clima y Agua; Argentina

Fil: Diarra, Alhousseine. Université Cadi Ayyad. Faculté des Sciences Semlalia; Marruecos

Fil: Dupuy, Stéphane. Centre de Coopération Internationale en Recherche Agronomique pour le Développerment; Francia

Fil: French, Andrew. United States Department of Agriculture. Agricultural Research Service. Arid Land Agricultural Research Center; Argentina

Fil: Akhtar, Ibrar ul Hassan. Pakistan Space and Upper Atmosphere Research Commission. Space Applications Research Complex. National Agriculture Information Center Directorate; Pakistán

Fil: Kussul, Nataliia. National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine. Space Research Institute and State Space Agency of Ukraine; Ucrania

Fil: Lebourgeois, Valentine. Centre de Coopération Internationale en Recherche Agronomique pour le Développerment; Francia

Fil: Le Page, Michel. Université Cadi Ayyad. Faculté des Sciences Semlalia. Laboratoire Mixte International TREMA; Marruecos. Universite de Toulose - Le Mirail. Centre d’Etudes Spatiales de la BIOsphère; Francia

Fil: Newby, Terrence. Agricultural Research Council; Sudáfrica

Fil: Savin, Igor. V.V. Dokuchaev Soil Science Institute; Rusia

Fil: Verón, Santiago Ramón. Instituto Nacional de Tecnología Agropecuaria (INTA). Instituto de Clima y Agua; Argentina

Fil: Koetz, Benjamin. European Space Agency. European Space Research Institute; Italia

Fil: Defourny, Pierre. Université Catholique de Louvain. Earth and Life Institute; Bélgica