Land cover estimates have been given a boost in accuracy thanks to a groundbreaking new map of crop cover in the UK.

The map was created using 2015 data from the European Space Agency’s Copernicus Sentinel-1 satellite, using the framework from CEH’s existing Land Cover Map (LCM), by a partnership of researchers and business.

The crop types covered in the 2015 edition are winter wheat, winter barley, spring barley, oilseed rape, field beans, potatoes, sugar beet, maize, other (which covers vegetable crops, oats, rye, peas and early potatoes and maize) and improved grass. The map’s creators said its accuracy ranges from 85% of fields correctly identified for lesser grown crop types to 95% accuracy and beyond for grassland, wheat and oilseed rape.

Defra has released Copernicus data as part of its big data initiative, which environment secretary Liz Truss has said is “A major resource that entrepreneurs already use to design new tools.” Speaking to the Institute for Government this week, the environment secretary said, “Our data is driving exciting advances in mapping.”

The Centre for Ecology & Hydrology (CEH) joined forces with Remote Sensing Applications Consultants Ltd (RSAC) to produce the map, called ‘Land Cover plus: Crops’ as it looks predominantly at the UK’s arable crops (though does have information on grassland cover).

The satellite map has been created using radar data, which is not affected by cloud cover and can be used day or night in all weather conditions. Researchers used over 350 individual images, taken during the crop growing season. The map is the first of a series that will be updated over the next three years.

The researchers behind the map said it could be put to a variety of uses beyond monitoring trends in crop production for policy makers and land managers; these include improving catchment-sensitive farming, wildlife conservation and crop disease monitoring.

RASC Managing Director Mike Wooding said, “Not only is Land Cover plus: Crops the first ever crop map of the UK, we also believe it to be the world’s first detailed national or regional crop map based on satellite radar data.”

The map will be available from March 2016, either as a whole or covering a specific area or crop type. More information is available here.