What was September like? Processing DWD weather data with the AgriSens Datacube

What was September like? Processing DWD weather data with the AgriSens Datacube

m

October 16, 2023

Here at the Earth Observation Research Cluster, we not only work with satellite or drone data, but also incorporate datasets like weather measurements. For example, one of our partners in the AgriSens DEMMIN 4.0 project is the German Weather Service (DWD), who operate a dedicated agricultural observation infrastructure in our study region around Demmin in the German state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern. Yesterday they released to us their data for September, which is automatically downloaded from their servers into our infrastructure, where it is converted from the typical meteorological netCDF format into the more cloud-friendly GeoTIFF format and then ingested into our datacube.

 

As you have probably noticed if you live in Germany, that past September has been unusually warm, so out of curiosity our datacube man Christoph Friedrich started a quick Jupyter Notebook and ran a little analysis on this fresh data, which produced the three graphics below:

 


The following map shows the mean air temperature over the entire month. The differences throughout the area may look more extreme than they really are, as a closer look on the legend reveals that the spread between minimum and maximum is less than one degree. This is as expected since the area covers “only” 37 by 43 kilometers in a terrain that is mostly flat.

 


However, when put into context with the six previous years, a remarkable difference can be seen: The September of 2023 was several degrees warmer than the last years! This observation has to be taken with a grain of salt, as our timeseries of only seven years is nowhere near representative, but it is a very interesting observation nonetheless, as several degrees are a significant margin. (Note that a different colour map was used than in the previous graphic in order to increase contrast within the years.)


In the next graphic, it is not the mean temperature that is shown, but the sum of rainfall over the whole month. It can be seen that this September was not only warm, but also relatively dry, however this seems to be less uncommon. It also fits into the general fact of Eastern Germany experiencing comparatively low precipitation levels. The combination with warmer temperatures, however, may put additional stress on the agriculture undertaken here.

 

 

further reading:

 

AgriSens project https://www.agrisens-demmin.de/
dedicated agricultural observation infrastructure https://www.dlr.de/eoc/desktopdefault.aspx/tabid-9539/16442_read-40235/
our datacube https://eo2cube.org/

 

you may also like:

Bridging Scales: How Radar Satellites supports Crop Monitoring

Bridging Scales: How Radar Satellites supports Crop Monitoring

In an era of climate uncertainty and increasing pressure on agricultural systems, understanding how crops grow and respond to environmental stress is more important than ever. A new study led by researchers from Martin-Luther-University Halle-Wittenberg, in close...

Upcoming PhD Defense by Ariane Droin

Upcoming PhD Defense by Ariane Droin

Ariane Droin will defend her PhD thesis "Permeabilität und Erreichbarkeit lokaler Nachbarschaften im urbanen Kontext. Eine geographische Analyse auf Basis räumlicher Netzwerke." on September 16th at 4 p.m. at the John-Skilton Straße 4a, Seminar Room 2/00.B.03.  ...

PhD Defense by Dorothee Stiller

PhD Defense by Dorothee Stiller

Dorothee Stiller will defend her PhD thesis "Potential of Remote Sensing Data and Methods for Urban Transport Research" on 15th of September at 4 p.m. at the John-Skilton Straße 4a, seminar Room 2/00.B.03. Everyone who is interested is cordially invited to join her...

Strengthening Collaboration with SANParks for Conservation Research

Strengthening Collaboration with SANParks for Conservation Research

Our long-standing collaboration with Dr. Corli Coetsee and Dr. Ben Wigley from SANParks is moving forward with promising new research activities. The joint work is focusing on mapping savanna features more accurately such as trees, paths, or animals through innovative...

Exploring Future Collaborations on Fire Research in African Savannas

Exploring Future Collaborations on Fire Research in African Savannas

During recent discussions, new opportunities for collaboration emerged between Navashni Govender, Senior Conservation Manager at SANParks in Kruger National Park, Prof. Katharina Breininger, head of the Pattern Recognition Lab in Informatics, and Dr. Mirjana Bevanda...

Understanding Urban Heat in Germany

Understanding Urban Heat in Germany

In a world where summers grow ever hotter, understanding and combating urban heat islands is becoming more urgent than ever. A recent study by our Prof. Hannes Taubenboeck sheds new light on this challenge—and at its helm is Dr. Tobias Leichtle, Dr. Thilo Erbertseder...