Evolution of soil and plant parameters on the agricultural Gebesee test site: a database for the set-up and validation of EO-LDAS and other satellite-aided retrieval models

Abstract

Abstract. Ground reference data are a prerequisite for the calibration, update and validation of retrieval models facilitating the monitoring of land parameters based on Earth Observation data. Here, we describe the acquisition of a comprehensive ground reference database which was elaborated to test and validate the recently developed Earth Observation Land Data Assimilation System (EO-LDAS). In situ data was collected for seven crop types (winter barley, winter wheat, spring wheat, durum, winter rape, potato and sugar beet) cultivated on the agricultural Gebesee test site, central Germany, in 2013 and 2014. The database contains information on hyperspectral surface reflectance, the evolution of biophysical and biochemical plant parameters, phenology, surface conditions, atmospheric states, and a set of ground control points. Ground reference data was gathered with an approximately weekly resolution and on different spatial scales to investigate variations within and between acreages. In situ data collected less than 1 day apart from satellite acquisitions (RapidEye, SPOT5, Landsat-7 and -8) with a cloud coverage ≤ 25 % is available for 10 and 16 days in 2013 and 2014, respectively. The measurements show that the investigated growing seasons were characterized by distinct meteorological conditions causing interannual variations in the parameter evolution. In the article, the experimental design of the field campaigns, and methods employed in the determination of all parameters are described in detail. Insights into the database are provided and potential fields of application are discussed. We hope these data will contribute to a further development of crop monitoring methods based on remote sensing techniques. The database is freely available at PANGAEA (doi:10.1594/PANGAEA.874251).

Plant phenotyping relevance

作物の生育・生物物理／生化学的パラメータと反射スペクトル等を反復取得する地上観測データベースを構築し、衛星リモートセンシング検索モデルの校正・検証に用いる方法とデータが中心であるため、植物フェノタイピングのデータセット／測定基盤として含める。

Code and data availability

This is a data descriptor paper whose entire contribution is a public ground-reference plant-phenotyping database (biophysical/biochemical plant parameters, phenology, hyperspectral reflectance, FVC/PSM imagery-derived traits) hosted on PANGAEA. The article text explicitly provides public PANGAEA DOIs for the main 2013