Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada

The AAFC Land Use Time Series is a culmination and curated meta-analysis of several high-quality spatial datasets produced between 2000 and 2021 using a variety of methods by teams of researchers as techniques and capabilities have evolved. The information from the input datasets was consolidated...

In 2009 the Earth Observation Team of the Science and Technology Branch (STB) at Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada (AAFC) began the process of generating annual crop inventory digital maps using satellite imagery. Focusing on the Prairie Provinces, a Decision Tree (DT) based methodology was...

In 2023, the Earth Observation Team of the Science and Technology Branch (STB) at Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada (AAFC) repeated the process of generating annual crop inventory digital maps using satellite imagery for all Canadian provinces, in support of a national crop inventory. This year we...

The “Agricultural Major Land Practices Groups of the Canadian Prairies” dataset lays out the areas of the 5 Major Land Practices Groups of the agricultural portions of the Canadian Prairies. They are represented by vector polygons amalgamated (dissolved) from the Version 1.9 SLC polygons sharing...

In 2022, the Earth Observation Team of the Science and Technology Branch (STB) at Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada (AAFC) repeated the process of generating annual crop inventory digital maps using satellite imagery for all Canadian provinces, in support of a national crop inventory. New this...

In 2016, the Earth Observation Team of the Science and Technology Branch (STB) at Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada (AAFC) repeated the process of generating annual crop inventory digital maps using satellite imagery to for all of Canada, in support of a national crop inventory. A Decision Tree...

The “Agricultural Land Practices Groups of the Canadian Prairies” dataset lays out the areas of the 13 Land Practices Groups of the agricultural portions of the Canadian Prairies. They are represented by vector polygons amalgamated (dissolved) from the Version 1.9 SLC polygons sharing common...

In 2010 the Earth Observation Team of the Science and Technology Branch (STB) at Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada (AAFC) continued the process of generating annual crop inventory digital maps using satellite imagery. Focusing on the Prairie Provinces, a Decision Tree (DT) based methodology was...

In 2017, the Earth Observation Team of the Science and Technology Branch (STB) at Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada (AAFC) repeated the process of generating annual crop inventory digital maps using satellite imagery to for all of Canada, in support of a national crop inventory. A Decision Tree...

In 2011, the Earth Observation Team of the Science and Technology Branch (STB) at Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada (AAFC) expanded the process of generating annual crop inventory digital maps using satellite imagery to include British Columbia, Ontario, Quebec, and the Maritime provinces, in...

In 2013, the Earth Observation Team of the Science and Technology Branch (STB) at Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada (AAFC) repeated the process of generating annual crop inventory digital maps using satellite imagery to for all of Canada, in support of a national crop inventory. A Decision Tree...

This data represents the dryness of the land surface based on vegetation conditions. The data is created weekly and uses weekly information on precipitation anomalies (namely the Standardized Precipitation Index or SPI) and satellite vegetation condition derived from Normalized Difference...

Minimum Temperature represents the lowest recorded temperature value (°C) at each location for a given time period. Time periods include the previous 24 hours and the previous 7 days from the available date where a climate day starts at 0600UTC.

The term "Palmer Drought Index" has been used collectively to represent multiple indices. This index is simply a water balance model which analyzes precipitation and temperature, and used as a tool to measure meteorological and hydrological drought across space and time. All versions of the...

Crop Heat Units (CHU) are calculated on a daily basis, using the maximum and minimum temperatures in order to account for a crop’s negative response to higher temperatures. The formula used to calculate the CHU value for a day is: (1.8 × (Minimum Temperature − 4.4) + 3.33 × (Maximum...

Dry spell periods are defined as the number of days (April 1 – October 31) where daily precipitation is less than 0.5 mm. This is not an accumulation of precipitation, simply a count of days. Dry spell products are only generated during the Growing Season, April 1 through October 31.

Accumulated Precipitation represents the amount of total precipitation in mm (solid and/or liquid) which has been recorded over a given period of time. Products are produced for the following timeframes: Agricultural Year, Growing Season, Winter Season, as well as rolling products for 7, 14,...

Percent of Average Precipitation represents the accumulation of precipitation for a location, divided by the long term average value. The long term average value is defined as the average amount over the 1981 – 2010 period. Products are produced for the following timeframes: Agricultural Year,...

Heat Wave represents the consecutive number of days (April 1 – October 31) where the maximum daily temperature is greater than 25 or 30 degrees respectively. Heat wave products are only generated during the Growing Season, April 1 through October 31.

Growing degree days (GDDs) are used to estimate the growth and development of plants and insects during the growing season. Growing Degree Day are computed by subtracting a base value temperature from the mean daily temperature and are assigned a value of zero if negative. Base temperatures are a...