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TerraNIS – From precision to decision

TerraNIS is designing, developing and selling geoinformation services based on Earth Observation in the field of agriculture and environment. The arrival of Sentinel images will drastically change the paradigm for the development of such services. TerraNIS is anticipating this change by preparing its production chain to these new data and by creating a network of SMEs across Europe (so called EUGENIUS network) in order to share each SME know-how, among the partners, with the objective to address new regional markets in a cost effective manner.

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TerraNIS SAS is a new company, created in March 2014 and located near Toulouse – France. TerraNIS is designing and delivering geoinformation services, based on Earth Observation, to its customers in the field of agriculture and environment.

TerraNIS operates and sells worldwide the Pixagri and *Œnoview services, respectively dedicated to precision farming and precision viticulture. Those two services were originally developed by Astrium (which became Airbus Defense and Space in 2014) in collaboration with INRA and ICV respectively. TerraNIS and Airbus have signed a partnership agreement early 2015 which allows TerraNIS to use and further develop this original technology.

TerraNIS is also the founder and the operator of EUGENIUS TM . The EUGENIUS TM initiative (which stands for European Group of Enterprises for a Network of Information using Space) aims at creating a network of SMEs distributed across the different European regions in order to deliver geo-information services in the regions where they are located.

ŒNOVIEW and PIXAGRI services

Œnoview is a comprehensive service, available worldwide, that helps winegrower detect sub-field and inter-field variations at veraison stage (veraison represents the transition from berry growth to berry ripening, and many changes in berry development occur at veraison).

The Œnoview® cartography measures the variability of vine vigor through the anlysis of multispectral optical satellite imagery (resolution less or equal to 1,5m) and the level of internal variability of each vineyard. Zoned maps are produced, which can be used for the improvement of the technical management (fertilization, harvest, pruning, bunch thinning…) of the vineyard. On a large scale, groups of vineyards presenting the same characteristics can be created to improve harvest organization.

Œnoview is based on a software application called Overland ^™ , which uses a unique image processing methodology that doesn’t depend on local and weather conditions. Our crop experts, namely oenologists, systematically check maps before they are delivered.

The maps are delivered in image formats compatible with most geographic information software, thus allowing you to conduct sub-field and inter-field analysis from the office or in the field. Map files are interoperable and supported by a wide range of mobile and on-tractor systems. 

We also deliver fully annotated and printable maps in PDF format at field level, highlighting the intra-field variability.


Figure 1: Field-level map of fCover, shows the surface area of visible green vegetation
Figure 2 : Field-level map of zoned fCover, segmentation of field-level fCover map

Pixagri is quite similar to Oenoview but it is dedicated to large crops e.g. wheat, soya, rape seed etc. It gives farming professionals more control over practices and inputs to achieve maximum profitability. 

The analysis of the Pixagri maps generates direct quality benefits by helping farmers to optimize investment and effort through:

  • Farm diagnosis: inter-field and sub-field variations, identification of sources of variability, analysis to determine whether practices fit objectives.
  • Support in optimizing practices to meet their short- and medium-term objectives.
  • Monitoring implementation of new practices and their effectiveness.

Similarly to Oenoview, Pixagri is using the Overland™ software suite and uses also multispectral optical satellite imagery but with a coarser resolution less or equal to 20m. The ESA Sentinel 2 data will be perfectly adapted to Pixagri and should foster the development of the service both in terms of commercial footprint but also in terms of offer. In other words, the gratuity of the data will definitely ease the commercial development of the service and, in parallel, the richness of the spectral bands of the imagery will allow an improvement of the added-value products. Overland will indeed be able to process together the whole band set of the S2 data.

Thanks to the spectral richness of the data, major performance steps are expected:

  • an accurate estimation of the crop Leaf Area Index (LAI), which quantifies the crop foliage and is the prime parameter to monitor crop development, even for high LAI values once canopy closure is reached.
  • an accurate measurement of the leaf Chlorophyll Content (Chl), which quantifies the chlorophyll accumulated in the leaves and is a dynamic, key parameter to monitor plant nutrition and stress.
  • an improved discrimination between soil and dry leaves, which allows to measure the senescent or diseased part of the crop foliage (Non-Photosynthetic Vegetation = NPV)

Pixagri customers are today located in North America and Central Europe while Oenoview customers are (so far) essentially located in France.

EUGENIUS

The EUGENIUS network is made of a set of European geo-information SMEs, implemented in European regions and expert in different thematic domains, who have decided to cooperate for building up an open network of commercial EO services platforms.

The objectives of EUGENIUS are:

  • to assemble a generic and modular regional service platform able to deliver a set of operational, sustainable, standardized and QoS certified applications in a “series-mode” approach which answer the major stakes of the Land & Natural Resources Management field, by making maximum benefit of Copernicus data and more specifically Sentinel satellites technical performances and revisit capabilities
  • to demonstrate that such a platform can be replicated in several European regions and networked to tackle the market potential of each region for such applications while ensuring lowest provision costs and more rapid delivery of EO based services thanks to a regional presence and to the reuse of well proven applicative tools
  • to use applicative tools developed by a service provider located in a given European region for generating end products satisfying users’ needs in another region. That will be made possible thanks to the same kind of platform used for “hosting” the tool, “fed” by data relevant for this region, and to the setting up of a “cooperation agreement” between the “tool owner” and the “regional platform operator”.

Finally, with these three goals successfully achieved, the EUGENIUS technical and market concept should pave the way for a quick and “low investment demanding” deployment of EO applications using Sentinel images across Europe. A new kind of “business engine” for this EO downstream market, generated by a set of cooperating SMEs, and open to other ones will have been formed.

TerraNIS