MSci H.T.C. Simota.
SOS consists in a number of macro-functions developed under a spreadsheet environment.
The production system is defined by crop species, soil type, hydrologic conditions and weather during the growing season. The user has two choices selecting the algorithms for the estimation of the water balance elements significant for crop studies, depending on the quality and the amount of available input data. The other one is based on the travel time approach using daily weather data and a layered soil profile. The model has the ability to deal with various crop rotations, including fallow. The effects of the land slope and exposition on the ground level solar radiation are included in the weather data generator.