J. Cunillera et Mc. Llasat, APPLICATION OF REMOTE-SENSING AND MULTIVARIATE-ANALYSIS TO THE AGROCLIMATIC CHARACTERIZATION OF A MEDITERRANEAN REGION, Theoretical and applied climatology, 57(3-4), 1997, pp. 197-208
This paper presents a climatological application of the combination of
remote sensing data and multivariate analysis. It proposes a methodol
ogy to perform an agroclimatic characterization of a region with the a
im of determining homogeneous areas. This methodology is applied to Ca
talonia, in the northwest of the Mediterranean Sea, in the Iberian. Pe
ninsula. To this end various multivariate analysis techniques have bee
n applied to data from 107 meteorological stations and to digitally pr
ocessed AVHRR images from a NOAA satellite (ground surface temperature
and thermal inertia). Values of emissivity and albedo for different l
and uses and phenomenological states, in addition to the most suitable
algorithms for the soil surface temperature, have been obtained. Comb
ining this information with orographic characteristics and the Papadak
is classification, a final map is obtained with 68 homogeneous zones f
or the period between April and October, the most important for the ag
riculture of the area studied.