Rice Acreage Estimation in Kalmykia Based on MODIS Data

Recent improvements in spatial and temporal resolution of remotely sensed data have opened new possibilities for estimating crop acreage over larger areas. Crop acreage statistical data are sometimes biased and in complete. Remotely sensed data allow, in some cases, the estimation of crop acreage independently of national and subnational survey statistics. This work focuses on the use of MODIS data acquired in 2004¿2008 concerning the Kalmykia republic in Russia. The paper presents a methodology to estimate crop acreage using the MODIS 10_day composite NDVI product. The rice fields are recognized using correlation analysis between the NDVI profiles of the current season with the profiles for the previous seasons. We attempted to distinguish, based on MODIS data, blocks of rice fields for the 2004¿2008 rice growing seasons, and achieved satisfactory results. Field recognition can be done at the beginning of the crop growing season.JRC.DG.G.3-Monitoring agricultural resource