Soil Exposure & Crop Residue
Fractional residue and bare soil, separating dry cellulose from the mineral clay background underneath it.
Crop residue cover and topsoil clay, for residue and tillage classes.
Freshly ploughed fields, the bare-soil window the layer reads.
WHAT THE SENSOR SEES
What this layer looks for.
The laboratory reference for each material, and what the sensor's band spacing captures of it. The shaded band marks the range the method reads.
WHAT IT FINDS
What it detects.
| Material | Typical setting | What can confuse it |
|---|---|---|
| Fractional Crop Residue Cover (fCover) | Agricultural croplands under conservation tillage / no-till management | Moisture in wet residue suppressing cellulose absorption depth |
METHOD
How it works.
Calibrated reflectance goes in, and every pixel is fitted against a public reference library.
Band feasibility check
The three wavelengths the index needs are checked against the sensor's own band centres and widths before the job starts. Two of them landing on the same source band is refused outright: the result would be identically zero everywhere and would still render.
Cellulose absorption index
The published cellulose index is applied unchanged, which separates dry plant material from the flatter curve of bare soil.
Fraction unmixing
Mixed field pixels are decomposed into residue, green crop and bare mineral soil.
Tillage classes
Fields are binned using the published conservation tillage definition, which sets its line at thirty percent residue cover. The fraction is reported alongside the class, so a field near the line is visible as such.
SPECIFICATIONS
What you get, and what it runs on.
Conditions it needs
Method and checks are documented in Axine Applied Spectroscopy Paper #5 · Section 3.2.
Scope
Needs dry, bare ground. A scene taken soon after rain understates residue cover.
RUN IT OVER YOUR GROUND
Run this layer over your own area.
Order processing over your area of interest, or a tasked capture where the archive has nothing usable. Imagery access is never charged for: a plan buys the models.
COMPLEMENTARY ANALYTICS
Related layers.
Soil Organic Carbon Proxy
Each pixel is composited to the moment it was most exposed, then ranked for organic matter. No carbon content is reported.
Topsoil Clay & Salinity Index
Gypsum and clay readings on bare soil. Salt itself is invisible to the sensor, so salinity is only ever inferred from what travels with it.
Canopy Chlorophyll & Red-Edge
Red-edge position, which follows canopy pigment. Refused on sensors that cannot resolve it.