Corn Nitrogen Management: Vegetation Indices from 3-m Satellite Imagery

This dataset supports a 2021 study evaluating 16 vegetation indices derived from PlanetScope satellite imagery for in-season nitrogen management in corn. The analysis is based on three on-farm field trials in Indiana with varying tillage systems and nitrogen rates. It quantifies the relationship between vegetation indices and yield to estimate the agronomic optimum nitrogen rate.

Use Cases

• Compare the performance of 8 NIR-based and 8 RGB-based vegetation indices for detecting crop nitrogen response.
• Analyze how VI-yield relationships vary across fields with different tillage systems and crop residue levels.
• Assess the accuracy of VI-derived AONR estimates (AONRvi) against yield-based AONR (AONRy) for precision agriculture.
• Evaluate the impact of image timing, specifically mid-vegetative period (V10-V11), on nitrogen management predictions.

Strengths

• Evaluates 16 distinct vegetation indices (8 NIR-based, 8 RGB-based) for a specific agricultural application.
• Data is derived from PlanetScope satellite imagery with 3-meter spatial resolution.
• Study conducted across three on-farm field trials with contrasting tillage systems and multiple nitrogen rates.
• Published under a permissive CC BY 4.0 license.

Limitations

• The dataset is small, contained within a 671.4 KB document, limiting direct computational analysis.
• The study found generally weak VI-yield relationships (R² ≤ 0.31) during the vegetative period.
• Only 17% of the evaluated VI-N response curves met the selection criteria for estimating the optimum nitrogen rate.
• No single vegetation index performed consistently best across all fields and image timings.

Provenance

Source

figshare

Collection Method

Data collected from three rainfed on-farm field trials in Indiana. PlanetScope imagery was used to calculate vegetation indices across multiple corn growth stages.

Time Range

2021

Freshness

Data is from 2021, with the record last updated in March 2026.

Geography

Indiana, United States