Crop Area Estimates with Meris Data on Belgium and Poland

In the framework of Geoland, Infoterra France has mapped with MERIS the distribution of annual crops surfaces in Belgium, Poland and Russia (Rostov oblast). The maps provided are the acreages of main groups of crops per administrative or agricultural circumscriptions unit. The groups are winter, spring and root crops (sugar beet, potatoes). The method for mapping exploits the MERIS capability to monitor large areas (~30 000 km2 to 300 000 km2) and to measure frequently, twice per month as an average, the Fraction of Green Vegetation covering the soil. The temporal series of fraction of cover observed along the vegetation season is then compared to crops phenological models of the various groups of crops. An inversion based process calculates the proportion of the various groups of crops on the unit that covered by arable land. The produced maps have been evaluated with national agricultural statistics for the various covered area. The results obtained both on Poland and Belgium are presented here and are in general satisfactory. The methodology is relevant when agricultural conditions correspond to a bit of major crops within dominant agricultural areas. The only present limitation is the underestimation of Maize crops on Belgian case. However this performance should be tentatively improved in future versions of the processing chain. * Corresponding author.