Influence of soils on Landsat spectral signatures of corn

Landsat data have been investigated extensively to determine crop types and acreage. However, confounding site factors have been found to reduce accuracy. Soils data in a small, contiguous area in southeast South Dakota were used to stratify Landsat data. A June 5 and July 29 CCT were used in a statistical analysis of corn training data. Significant soil parameters causing differences in study area soils were slope and parent material. Implication of the results is that, in this region, stratification of CCT data along parent material boundaries would improve corn classification accuracy. Research expanding on the interaction of soils and crops is both in progress and scheduled for additional studies in east central South Dakota.