Evaporative fraction from time series of MODIS data to monitor crop status in Northern Italy

Crop monitoring services require the capability to investigate vegetation condition, especially in regions periodically affected by low or erratic rainfalls as recently happened in northern Italy. This paper define an operational methodology based on the “triangle method” to estimate Evaporative Fraction as an indicator of surface moisture condition. The approach, that relies on low resolution MODIS products and air temperature maps, it was applied to the 2010-2014 growing seasons deriving instantaneous maps to represent daily crop conditions. The qualitative assessment of the results shows the agronomical coherence of the estimated variable, and the preliminary multi-annual analyses indicates the approach as a promising tool to support near real time crop monitoring at regional scale.