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Application of remote sensing and multivariate analysis to the agroclimatic characterization of a Mediterranean region

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Summary

This paper presents a climatological application of the combination of remote sensing data and multivariate analysis. It proposes a methodology to perform an agroclimatic characterization of a region with the aim of determining homogeneous areas. This methodology is applied to Catalonia, in the northwest of the Mediterranean Sea, in the Iberian Peninsula. To this end various multivariate analysis techniques have been applied to data from 107 meteorological stations and to digitally processed AVHRR images from a NOAA satellite (ground surface temperature and thermal inertia). Values of emissivity and albedo for different land uses and phenomenological states, in addition to the most suitable algorithms for the soil surface temperature, have been obtained. Combining this information with orographic characteristics and the Papadakis classification, a final map is obtained with 68 homogeneous zones for the period between April and October, the most important for the agriculture of the area studied.

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Cunillera, J., Llasat, M.C. Application of remote sensing and multivariate analysis to the agroclimatic characterization of a Mediterranean region. Theor Appl Climatol 57, 197–208 (1997). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00863613

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