Physics-based simulation of CHIME and LSTM data to support advanced agricultural monitoring

Abstract. The upcoming Copernicus Expansion Missions CHIME and LSTM will offer new opportunities for agricultural monitoring, but algorithm development must begin before any data exist. Within the AgriCEM project, we address this gap by generating simulated CHIME and LSTM of sugar beet for monitoring applications development. A physically based end-to-end workflow couples the SCOPE model, which simulates VSWIR reflectance and emitted thermal radiance together with photosynthesis and energy fluxes, to the sensor and ground segment simulator RISE. Three seasonal datasets were produced: a scenario-based dataset representing healthy, drought-stressed and Cercospora-infected sugar beet, and two datasets parameterised from field campaigns in Poland and Italy. The products comprise CHIME-like L2A reflectance and LSTM-like L1C thermal radiance over a 4 km² agricultural area. First applications, including physically based retrieval of canopy water content, show that the simulated time series reproduce the expected spectral and thermal responses to abiotic and biotic stress. The datasets will be made available through the ESA Project Results Repository.