Abstract
The rice crop in the northern part of Japan suffered from cold-weather damage seriously in 1993. MOS-1/MESSR data acquired on September 2, 1993 was analyzed to obtain a geographical distribution map of the rice yield in the central Hokkaido.
Since sterility does harm to the rice yield, there is strong correlation between the extent of sterility and the chlorophyll content of the leaves during the ripening period. Therefore, we can estimate the yield from rice canopy reflectance of the light in the red region of MESSR. For extracting paddy fields, the Landsat TM data acquired on July 8, 1993 was also used. MESSR image of paddy fields was superimposed on the administrative district mesh map based on the Digital National Land Information of the Geographic Survey Institute. The statistical reports of agriculture, forestry and fisheries in Hokkaido were used as ground truth data.
There is a close relation between digital number of MESSR band 2 and yields of five subprefectures reported officially in December 1993. A simple linear regression model derived from these data was found useful to estimate distributions of yields, and application of logistic curve was also attempted. Estimated yields in 1 km grid were averaged to make the grid map of rice yield distribution.
