EN    EN EN 
 
EN    EN  EUROPEAN COMMISSION 
Brussels, 16.8.2010 
SEC(2010) 984 final 
  
COMMISSION STAFF WORKING DOCUMENT 
accompanying the 
 
REPORT FROM THE COMMISSION TO  THE COUNCIL AND THE EUROPEAN 
PARLIAMENT 
 
on the implementation of the remote sensing applications a nd on the use of the financial 
resources made available to it under Counc il Regulation (EC) No 78/2008 (interim 
report) 
{COM(2010) 436 final} 
 
EN 2   EN COMMISSION STAFF WORKING DOCUMENT 
accompanying the 
 
REPORT FROM THE COMMISSION TO  THE COUNCIL AND THE EUROPEAN 
PARLIAMENT 
 
on the implementation of the remote sensing applications a nd on the use of the financial 
resources made available to it under Counc il Regulation (EC) No 78/2008 (interim 
report)  
Background information in the form of graphs and maps on the Mars Crop Yield Forecasting 
System and details on the outputs made available 
 
EN 3   EN The purpose of the present document is to provide additional information on the functioning 
of the Mars Crop Yield Forecasting System (M CYFS) and the different outputs prepared by 
this activity. It accompanies the Report from the Commission to the Council and the European Parliament on the implementation of Council Regulation (EC) No 78/2008 and provides in the form of illustrations, graphs and maps, additional information on the architecture and the functioning of the system togeth er with information on the va rious outputs and reference to 
websites. 
1. G
ENERAL SYSTEM SET -UP AND WORK FLOW  
Figure 1. MCYFS: sketch showing the main i nput data and the main tasks carried 
out by the analysts  
 
 
Figure 2. Main building blocks of the system. The system consists of four main 
building blocks which are integrated to monitor crop behaviour and produces yield forecasts 
 
 
EN 4   EN Figure 3. Countries covered by the European wi ndow of the MCYFS (in green) for 
the crop yield forecasts and agro-meteorological analysis 
 
 
2. METEOROLOGICAL INFRASTRUCTURE  
Figure 4. Overview of meteorological infras tructure: input data; indicators; 
database extraction; information extraction over space and time 
 
 
EN 5   EN Figure 5. Meteorological station network with daily data reception (e.g. rainfall, 
temperature). The data is stored in the syst em and further interpolated to a grid with 
a resolution of 25km x 25 km 
 
 
Figure 6. Outputs from the meteorological infr astructure used for the analysis. 
Example of maps and graphs on minimum daily temperature and rainfall compared to the long-term average and graphs based  on observed meteorological parameters 
from the station network 
 
 
EN 6   EN Figure 7. Outputs from the meteorological infr astructure used for the analysis. 
Examples of maps based on weather for ecast data: average daily temperature; 
longest heat wave period; numbers of day s with rain; cumulated precipitation 
 
3. CROP MODEL INFRASTRUCTURE FOR THE SIMULATION OF CROP GROWTH  
Figure 8. Overview of the crop model infras tructure: input data; crop growth 
simulation; indicators; informati on extraction over  space and time 
 
 
EN 7   EN Figure 9. Examples of outputs from the crop m odel infrastructure used for the 
analysis in the form of maps and graphs : crop development stage; heat waves 
around crop maturity dates; crop specific relative soil moistu re; potential storage 
organ 
 
4. LOW RESOLUTION SATELLITE DATA  
Figure 10. Overview of remote-sensing infrastructu re: satellite sensors used as input 
data; pre processing and computation of veg etation state; meteor ological indicators; 
information extraction over space and time 
 
 
EN 8   EN Figure 11.  Examples of meteorological indica tors produced by the remote-sensing 
infrastructure: mean temperature; sola r radiation; frost days; snow cover 
 
 
Figure 12.  Examples of vegetation state param eters used for the analysis and the 
crop yield forecasting process: the Norma lized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) 
as an indicator for biomass 
 
 
EN 9   EN 5. STATISTICAL ANALYSIS  
Figure 13.  Overview of the statistical infrastructure used to produce the yield 
forecasts: input data, tools and methods applied 
 
 
Figure 14.  Example of crop yield forecast estimates provided at EU 27 level 
 

 
EN 10   EN 6. INFORMATION DISSEMINATION  
Figure 15.  Crop monitoring bulletins for Europe 
 
 
Figure 16.  Screen shot from the existing we b portal offering weather indicators, 
crop indicators and vegetation indi ces based on remote-sensing data 
 

 
EN 11   EN Internet resources 
• Web portal for information dissemina tion and links to the bulletins and 
distribution of meteorological  data upon registration:  
http://www.marsop.info/marsop3/  
• Access to the crop monitoring bulletin for Europe, the European pasture bulletin, 
the European rice bulletin, climatic updates and forecasts updates:  
http://mars.jrc.ec.europa.eu/mars/A bout-us/AGRI4CAST/MARS-Bulletins-for-
Europe 
 
• Access to remote-sensing imag ery for vegetation monitoring: 
http://cidportal.jrc.ec.europa .eu/home/idp/thematic-portals/agri4cast-imageserver/ 
 
• General information concerning the activity and related work: 
http://mars.jrc.ec.europa.e u/mars/About-us/AGRI4CAST