CONTINUAL CROP DEVELOPMENT PROFILING USING DYNAMICAL EXTENDED RANGE WEATHER FORECASTING WITH ROUTINE REMOTELY-SENSED VALIDATION IMAGERY

• US 20140358486A1
• Filed: 08/19/2014
• Published: 12/04/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 08/19/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: DTN, LLC (TBG AG)
• Original Assignee: Iteris Incorporated
• Inventors: Osborne, Leon F.
• Granted Patent: US 9,131,644 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 702/189
• CPC Class Codes: A01G 7/00 Botany in general
• CPC Class Codes: G01N 33/0098 Plants or trees wood G01N33/46
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 30/20 Design optimisation, verification or simulation optimisation, verification or simulation of circuit designs G06F30/30

Abstract

A modeling framework for estimating crop growth and development over the course of an entire growing season generates a continuing profile of crop development from any point prior to and during a growing season until a crop maturity date is reached. The modeling framework applies extended range weather forecasts and remotely-sensed imagery to improve crop growth and development estimation, validation and projection. Output from the profile of crop development profile generates a combination of data for use in auxiliary farm management applications.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

ingesting, as input data, crop-specific information and planting specifications;

ingesting, as input data, remotely-sensed imagery;

ingesting, as input data, meteorological data that includes fine-resolution dynamical extended range weather forecast information representing a time period extending through to a crop maturity date;

modeling the input data in a plurality of data processing modules within a computing environment in which the plurality of data processing modules are executed in conjunction with at least one processor, the data processing modules configured to generate a profile of crop development to a maturity stage by performing, over the course of a growing season, a crop growth model that includes the steps of

     1) generating an accumulated growing degree days estimate of crop growth stages,

     2) validating an estimate of crop growth stages using the remotely-sensed imagery to map a crop field and generate time-series data forming the profile to identify changes in a crop'"'"'s growth; and

     3) generating an accumulated growing degree days projection by extracting daily maximum and minimum air temperatures from the dynamical extended range weather forecast information to describe heat accumulated for a crop location for the time period extending through to the crop maturity date; and

generating, as output data, one or more of a crop growth action report and a crop summary report from profile of crop development.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the crop-specific information includes a crop type and a variety of crop type, wherein the variety of crop type determines a set of growth characteristics of the crop that enables the profile of crop development, the set of growth characteristics including a timing to growth of each crop growth stage, nutrient requirements per crop growth stage, pest and disease susceptibility per crop growth stage, and one or more temperature thresholds for crop growth conditions.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the generating an accumulated growing degree days estimate of a crop'"'"'s growth stage repetitively occurs over a course of a growing season in a plurality of instances of generating a profile of crop development.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the meteorological data further includes observed weather data for a geographical area including the crop field, and current field-level weather data for the geographical area including the crop field, the observed weather data and the current field-level weather data being repetitively ingested and applied to the crop growth model during the time period where the crop maturity date has not yet been reached.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the generating an accumulated growing degree days estimate of crop growth stages generates an accumulated growing degree day estimate on a daily basis until a total accumulated growing degree day estimate exceeds time period extending through to the crop maturity date.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the crop summary report is generated where the crop has reach maturity, and the crop growth and action report is generated where the crop has not yet reach maturity.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising generating a notification to a user when a validation of an estimate of crop growth stages identifies a change in the crop'"'"'s growth stage, wherein the notification is provided to the user as tactile indication on a mobile device.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the crop growth model analyzes the remotely-sensed imagery using a normalized difference vegetative index for evaluating at least one of plant health, biomass, and nutrient content.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising providing the output data to a one or more application protocol interface modules each configured to generate an advisory service for agriculture management applications.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the crop growth model is performed prior to a beginning of a growing season to simulate a full growing season to project an expected timeline of crop growth stages and an anticipated crop maturity date.

11. A system comprising:

a computer processor; and

at least one computer-readable storage medium operably coupled to the computer processor and having program instructions stored therein, the computer processor being operable to execute the program instructions to generate a profile of crop development to a maturity stage by performing, over the course of a growing season, a crop growth model within a plurality of data processing modules, the plurality of data processing modules including;

a data ingest module configured to ingest, as input data, crop-specific information and planting specifications, remotely-sensed imagery, and meteorological data that includes fine-resolution dynamical extended range weather forecast information representing a time period extending through to a crop maturity date;

an estimation module configured to generate an accumulated growing degree days estimate of crop growth stages;

a crop validation module configured to map a crop field and generate time-series data forming the profile to identify changes in a crop'"'"'s growth from the remotely-sensed imagery;

a projection module configure to generate an accumulated growing degree days projection by extracting daily maximum and minimum air temperatures from the dynamical extended range weather forecast information to describe heat accumulated for a crop location for the time period extending through to the crop maturity date; and

a crop growth reporting module configured to generate one or more of a crop growth action report and a crop summary report from the profile of crop development.

12. The system of claim 11, wherein the crop-specific information includes a crop type and a variety of crop type, wherein the variety of crop type determines a set of growth characteristics of the crop that enables the profile of crop development, the set of growth characteristics including a timing to growth of each crop growth stage, nutrient requirements per crop growth stage, pest and disease susceptibility per crop growth stage, and one or more temperature thresholds for crop growth conditions.

13. The system of claim 11, wherein the estimation module generates an accumulated growing degree days estimate of crop growth stages repetitively over a course of a growing season in a plurality of instances of generating a profile of crop development.

14. The system of claim 11, wherein the meteorological data further includes observed weather data for a geographical area including the crop field, and current field-level weather data for the geographical area including the crop field.

15. The system of claim 11, wherein the estimation module generates an accumulated growing degree day estimate on a daily basis until a total accumulated growing degree day estimate exceeds time period extending through to the crop maturity date.

16. The system of claim 11, wherein the crop growth reporting module generates the crop summary report where the crop has reach maturity, and generates the crop growth and action report where the crop has not yet reach maturity.

17. The system of claim 11, wherein the crop validation module generates a notification to a user when a validation of crop growth identifies a change in the crop'"'"'s growth, wherein the notification is provided to the user as tactile indication on a mobile device.

18. The system of claim 11, wherein the crop growth model analyzes the remotely-sensed imagery using a normalized difference vegetative index for evaluating at least one of plant health, biomass, and nutrient content.

19. The system of claim 11, further comprising an application programing interface module configured to receive the profile of crop development and generate one or more advisory service for agriculture management applications.

20. A method projecting crop growth over the course of a growing season, comprising:

within a computing environment comprised of a computer processor and at least one computer-readable storage medium operably coupled to the computer processor and having program instructions stored therein, the computer processor being operable to execute the program instructions to augment a crop growth model configured to perform the steps of;

estimating an accumulated growing degree days of a plurality of crop growth stages, by generating a profile of crop development over the course of a crop growing season through to a maturity stage;

validating an estimate of crop growth stages using remotely-sensed imagery to map a crop field and generate time-series data forming the profile of crop development to identify changes in a crop'"'"'s growth; and

projecting accumulated growing degree days for a time period extending through to the crop maturity date by extracting daily maximum and minimum air temperatures from dynamical extended range weather forecast information to describe heat accumulated for a crop location.

21. The method of claim 20, wherein the estimating an accumulated growing degree days of a plurality of crop growth stages repetitively occurs over a course of a growing season in a plurality of instances of generating a profile of crop development.

22. The method of claim 20, further comprising ingesting, as input data, crop-specific information and planting specifications, the remotely-sensed imagery, and meteorological data that includes the fine-resolution dynamical extended range weather forecast information.

23. The method of claim 22, wherein the crop-specific information includes a crop type and a variety of crop type, wherein the variety of crop type determines a set of growth characteristics of the crop that enables the profile of crop development, the set of growth characteristics including a timing to growth of each crop growth stage, nutrient requirements per crop growth stage, pest and disease susceptibility per crop growth stage, and one or more temperature thresholds for crop growth conditions.

24. The method of claim 22, wherein the meteorological data further includes observed weather data for a geographical area including the crop field, and current field-level weather data for the geographical area including the crop field, the observed weather data and the current field-level weather data being repetitively ingested and applied to the crop growth model during the time period where the crop maturity date has not yet been reached.

25. The method of claim 20, further comprising generating a crop summary report where the crop has reach maturity, and generating a crop growth and action report where the crop has not yet reach maturity.

26. The method of claim 20, further comprising generating a notification to a user when a validation of an estimate of crop growth stages identifies a change in the crop'"'"'s growth, wherein the notification is provided to the user as tactile indication on a mobile device.

27. The method of claim 20, further comprising providing the profile of crop development to a one or more application protocol interface modules each configured to generate an advisory service for agriculture management applications.

28. The method of claim 20, further comprising simulating, prior to a beginning of a growing season, a full growing season to project an expected timeline of crop growth stages and an anticipated crop maturity date.