ESA - Observing the Earth - Imaging vineyards from space will benefit Europe's wines

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Imaging vineyards from space will benefit Europe's wines

7 July 2003

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A view of the Champagne vineyards in Verzenay, south of Reims, eastern France, is seen May 17, 2002. Champagne can be made up of wines from three different grapes: the Chardonnay, a white grape, the Pinot Noir and the Pinot Meunier, dark grapes, from one, two or all three of the wines from these grapes. The art of Champagne-making comes in finding a harmonious balance among them, but the beverage must be produced in the Champagne region, from grapes grown here.(AP Photo/Michel Spingler)

Credits: Associated Press, AP

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This QuickBird satellite image shows the distinctive regular lines of Frascati vineyards at 0.61 m resolution. French research institute Cemagref are working on pattern recognition software to automatically recognise vines from satellite or aerial images.

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Cabernet Sauvignon grapes, first cultivated in Bordeaux in France. Europe is the world's most important wine-producing area

Credits: Associated Press, AP

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A satellite image of Frascati imported into a geographic information system and overlaid with other data. Vineyards are shown as green polygons while the pink rectangles are buildings marked on previous maps of the area. Any construction not overlaid with pink is therefore new. Used in this way, Bacchus could track land use changes in vine-growing areas throughout Europe.

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This satellite-derived image shows local slope face direction, overlaid with the limits of the Frascati Denominazione d'Origine Controllata. The 'hottest' reddish colours face the most south, and therefore get more Sun exposure, while 'cooler' colours face towards the north. Such information could be imported into the proposed Bacchus geographical information system to permit vinegrowers to estimate optimal sites to cultivate particular grape species.