Observing the phenological characteristics of winter food crops with spectral indices

Abstract. This study is based on the best crop classification result generated by the proposed unsupervised Machine Learning (ML) method in Li et al., 2025a, using the spectral indices calculated by the formula with spectral bands from Sentinel-2 image products, Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI), Soil Adjusted Vegetation Index (SAVI), Enhanced Vegetation Index (EVI) and Normalized Difference Moisture Index (NDMI). The patterns and characteristics of these spectral indices, across arable fields with different crop types following the winter growing seasons, have not yet been analyzed in detail. This research aims to provide a comprehensive study of each input spectral index and its impact on the crop classification model. Each spectral index is analyzed across a series of crop fields, using Sentinel-2 images, carefully selected to follow the patterns of winter crop phenology, and the results of unsupervised classification for each crop type in Norfolk, UK are successfully generated and analyzed. The different growing rates between winter barley and wheat have been classified found on a monthly basis using Sentinel-2 RGB images and thus the images during the harvest time, May and June, can support crop classifications. Wild grasses or other plants on the fields led to some crop misclassification from November to March in the Sentinel-2 RGB images. Similarity between winter barley and wheat and the different sowing time among the same type of crop also led to misclassification. In future these misclassifications could be avoided through better understanding of the relation between spectral indices and crop planting cycles.