Satelitarne rozpoznawanie upraw i szacowanie ich powierzchni w ramach systemu SATMIROL

One important area where satellite-based Earth observation is applied in is agricultural statistics. The use of new digital technologies and satellite data have contributed to the modernisation of the aforementioned scientific area and is designed to overcome the problems that both agricultural statistics and the recipients of statistical data are faced with. The main aim of the article is to present an innovative system of satellite-based crop identification and crop growth monitoring – SATMIROL. The system was developed by Statistics Poland, the Institute of Geodesy and Cartography and the Space Research Centre of the Polish Academy of Sciences. SATMIROL provides agricultural statistics based on satellite data from the Copernicus programme and administrative data. The article focuses on selected modules of the system which involve the use of satellite remote sensing for crop identification. The study also presents a nationwide crop area estimation performed in three periods: 2019, 2020 and 2021. The implementation of SATMIROL allowed the presentation of statistical data on agriculture in spatial terms, which is not possible when applying traditional methods of data production. This new method of acquiring data enables their presentation at all levels of Poland’s administrative division, i.e. by voivodship, poviat (district) and gmina (commune).