ScienceDaily (Jan. 28, 2010) — The U.S. Department of Agriculture's National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS) today announced the release of new satellite images depicting agricultural land cover across most of the nation for the 2009 crop year. The images, referred to as cropland data layers (CDL), are a useful tool for monitoring crop rotation patterns, land use changes, water resources and carbon emissions.

These crop-specific, digital data layers are suitable for use in geographic information systems (GIS) applications. They can be used by agribusinesses, farmers, government agencies, researchers and academic institutions to study pesticide risk, epidemiology, transportation, fertilizer usage, carbon dioxide flux and other topics.

NASS produced the CDLs using satellite images observed at 56-meter (0.775 acres per pixel) resolution and collected from the Resourcesat-1 Advanced Wide Field Sensor (AWiFS), Landsat Thematic Mapper and Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS). The collection of images was then categorized using on-the-ground farm information including field location, crop type, land cover, elevation, tree canopy and urban infrastructure.

For the first time, the CDL images are available for 47 of the 48 contiguous states. Data for the final state, Florida, will be available this spring pending the availability of certified farm data required to produce the images. NASS is also making available, for the first time, the New Mexico CDL for 2008.

The entire inventory of CDL products, including metadata and accuracy assessments, is available online at the USDA National Resource Conservation Service's Geospatial Data Gateway: http://datagateway.nrcs.usda.gov.

Recommend this story on Facebook, Twitter,
and Google +1:

Other bookmarking and sharing tools:

Story Source:

The above story is reprinted from materials provided by United States Department of Agriculture-Research, Education, and Economics.

Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.

Disclaimer: Views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

Related Stories

A Glimpse Of Future GMES Sentinel-1 Radar Images (Apr. 23, 2009) — A newly initiated campaign marks an important step in preparing for how data from the Sentinel-1 European Radar Observatory will be used for applications such as land-cover mapping and crop ...  > read more

Sowing Seeds With New Agricultural Carbon Accounting Tool (June 7, 2010) — Carbon dioxide emissions from agricultural activity in the United States can now be tracked with unprecedented resolution, thanks to a recently developed carbon accounting ...  > read more

New Tool Gets Handle On Cropland Carbon Dioxide Emissions (Feb. 12, 2009) — For the first time, farmers have data that tracks at the county level on-site and off-site energy use and carbon dioxide emissions associated with growing crops in the United ...  > read more

No-Tillage Plus: Cover Crops Offer A Model For Sustainability In Tropical Soils (July 29, 2008) — Tropical soils often behave differently than temperate soils when being farmed. In tropical regions, soils lose nutrients quickly when cultivated. With food shortages looming and soil quality ...  > read more

Search ScienceDaily