Advances of Modern Agrometeorological Service and Technology in China

Agrometeorological operational technology is the foundation and premise of modern agrometeorological service in China. The development of agrometeorological science and technology is always the core for national agrometeorological service. In recent years, national agrometeorological service grows quickly with high quality, and now it covers various fields such as agrometeorological monitoring and assessment, crop yield forecast, agrometeorological disasters monitoring and prediction, meteorological forecasting of disease and pests, and weather forecast for agricultural activities. With the development of agrometeorological technology, more and more numerical products are proposed to support agrometeorological services, e.g., daily, weekly, monthly and yearly products at both stations and grid points. Advances of agrometeorological service and technology are illustrated here, involving fields of agrometeorological monitoring and assessment, crop yield forecast, agrometeorological disasters monitoring and prediction, meteorological forecasting of disease and pests, weather forecast for agricultural activities and agrometeorological service system. Agrometeorological monitoring and assessment includes timely automatic monitoring of soil humidity, assessment of climate suitability based on temperature, precipitation, radiation and integrated functions, quantified assessment of crop growing situation based on three ways (i.e., field observation, remote sensing (RS) monitoring and crop model simulation). Several grades are defined to classify the level of crop growing. Crop yield forecast is mainly upon mathematical statistics methods based on relations between crop yield and key affecting factors, crop model simulation based on growing mechanism process for crops, and RS estimation based on relationships between yield and vegetation index. For some inevitable limitations in each method, multiple methods are integrated to forecast crop yield and the accuracy is generally above 99% during 2008-2017. Agrometeorological disasters monitoring, and prediction are always implemented in some ways, including classification based on single and multiple agrometeorological index, statistical analysis based on field survey, RS monitoring and crop model simulation. Risk analysis is the prerequisite for disasters assessment, involving hazard, vulnerability, sensibility and prevention. Meteorological forecasting of disease and pests currently refers to the linking models of meteorological factors and the occurrence of disease and pests. Key technologies for agricultural activities related weather forecast are the selection of index for key time farming, e.g., planting, flowering and harvest. China Agrometeorological Service System (CAgMSS), in which agrometeorological index, mathematical statistical models, crop growth simulation, RS, GIS, agrometeorological big data and other technologies integrated, is the highlight of national agrometeorological service and extended to provincial agrometeorological institutions. With an increasing demand of modern agricultural development, the meticulous and accurate agricultural meteorological disaster monitoring with risk assessment technology, the integrated technology of crop growth assessment and yield forecast, agricultural climate change impact, big data mining and artificial intelligence technology will become the focus of agrometeorological service in the coming decade.