System and method for field variance determination

Abstract

A method for measuring performance of a geographic region from an image including a set of image elements includes: receiving the image corresponding to a time unit, generating a geographic region performance map for the image, combining the geographic region performance map with a second geographic region performance map, and generating a geographic region performance summary map. Generating the geographic region performance map for the image can include mapping a set of image elements to a set of geographic sub-regions, generating a set of vegetative performance values for the set of image elements, mapping the set of image elements to a set of crop types, defining a subset of image elements corresponding to a subset of vegetative performance values, comparing vegetative performance values of the subset of vegetative performance values, and generating geographic region performance values for the subset of image elements.

We claim: 
     
         1 . A method for measuring performance of a geographic region, the geographic region including a set of geographic sub-regions, the method comprising:
 a) receiving a first image of a physical geographic region, the first image recorded during a recurrent time unit within a first time duration, the first image comprising an image element set;   b) for each image element of the image element set:
 mapping the image element to a virtual representation of a geographic sub-region within the geographic region, 
 determining a vegetative performance value for the virtual representation of the geographic sub-region based on a spectral signal extracted from the respective image element, and 
 associating the virtual representation of the geographic sub-region with a crop type from a set of crop types; 
   c) identifying a first crop set comprising virtual representations of geographic sub-regions associated with a first crop type of the set of crop types; and   d) determining a first normalized vegetative performance value set, comprising determining a normalized vegetative performance value for each virtual representation of a geographic sub-region within the first crop set.