New technology -- Farming with DTN Earthscan

This fall (1999) we subscribed to DTN Earthscan which provides Satellite imagery and analyzing tools on the Internet for the farmer.

This is Earthscan's Help center.
Natural Color provides you with a visually familiar reference of your field. It provides you the detail for the placement of physical structures and roadways.
Vegetation Green provides you with a green color-enhanced image of the near-infrared (NIR) wavelength reflection. A quick method of detecting large variations in your crop.
Vegetation Red provides you with a red color-enhanced image of the near-infrared (NIR) wavelength reflection. Also a quick method of detecting large variations in your crop.
Field Variation Map is the most powerful representation of vegetative differences. Scientifically developed analysis techniques provide you with an easily recognized contrast in vegetation vigor within your crop. A bar chart appears with the Relative Vigor for the area processed shown in number of acres.
Season Variation Map is a scientifically developed analysis techniques that provides you with an easily recognized contrast in vegetation vigor from date to date. A bar chart appears with the Relative Vigor for the area processed shown in number of acres.

Presently EarthScan uses three spatial resolution levels for describing imagery:
HIGH (imagery covering less than 5 meters per pixel and about 200 acres per image)
MEDIUM (imagery covering between 5 and 20 meters per pixel and about 800 acres per image)
LOW (imagery covering greater than 20 meters per pixel and about 2225 acres per image).


On June 10, 1999 we had a hail/wind storm on the farm you'll see below.
The first image is of the section where the hail storm was. This Low Resolution Satellite image was taken on 7/15/1999 and is a Natural Color view.

7/15/1999 Satellite Natural color view
1991 Ortho Aerial view from 6100 meters
The above view is of the 120 acre farm where the hail fell. I used ARC View to create this Orthophotographic image of the farm. Carroll county Iowa is one of the counties that the USGS has Ortho imagery on.
Soil label
Soil Slope
Black= 11B, Lime= 99D2, Red= 9E2, Brown= 9C2
I used ARC View and the Iowa Soils Database CD to create these maps.
Black= 2-5%, Red= 14-20%, Lime Green= 5-9%, Brown= 9-14%


The next images are of cropped views of the soybean field that had hail and were created using Earthscan's online analyzing program.

Natural Color
Vegetation Green

Above is an image of the bean field that had hail. The lighter colored area on the top is where the hail occured. The area in red is where the hail occured in June. The beans were 50% defoliated after the hail storm and this satellite image still shows the damage 1 month after the storm.
Vegetation Red
The Near-Infrared image to the left shows the hail area as a blue color.

We are anxious to compare the fall yield monitor image to these Satellite images.
Field Variation
Relative vigor scale

The gray-blue color above shows where the worst part of the hail storm went through the field. These low vigor areas match up with my brother's scouting report where he found 50% defoliation right after the hail storm. The scale above shows the number of acres for each area of varying vigor.
Season Variation
Relative vigor scale

Analysis of the corn field on this same farm



We look foward to getting a set of maps throughout the season on a few farms next year.
Since this was DTN Earthscan's first year they didn't have images of our county throughout the whole season.
We look forward to receiving High Resolution maps next year and will use them in conjunction with our crop scouting.

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