Application of GOCI-derived vegetation index profiles to estimation of paddy rice yield using the GRAMI rice model

Abstract

In this paper, satellite remote sensing was used as the input parameter of the GRAMI rice model to evaluate its applicability for simulating paddy rice crop condition and yield assessment at the field scale. Especially, the world’s first Geostationary Ocean Color Imager (GOCI), which provides better temporal resolution than does MODIS, was applied to evaluate the estimation of intuitive paddy rice growth and development and to examine the feasibility for vegetation index profiles of the GRAMI rice model. Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) satellite data at 500-m resolution were used as reference data to validate the quality of the crop growth and development data derived from GOCI. Field measurements of paddy rice at Chonnam National University, Gwangju, South Korea, were performed to determine initial parameters of the GRAMI rice model, which is used to optimize biophysical processes in the soil–crop–atmosphere system. For angular-dependent vegetation products, daily rolling time series of vegetation indices of GOCI and MODIS were estimated using semi-empirical BRDF modeling based on 16-day composite procedures. The observed temporal variation in GOCI vegetation indices (VIs) based on BAR (bidirectional reflectance distribution function adjusted reflectance) showed a similar growing pattern to the simulated VIs of the crop model, but MODIS showed a difference between measured and simulated VIs during the cloudy monsoon season. The rice yields predicted by integrating satellite data and the GRAMI rice model were compared with field measurements and showed reasonable agreement with reference to paddy rice productivity in the study area.