A Method for Prediction of Winter Wheat Maturity Date Based on MODIS Time Series and Accumulated Temperature

Accurate determination of crop phenology is key to field management and decision making. The existing research on phenology based on remote sensing data is mainly phenology monitoring, which cannot realize the prediction of phenology. In this paper, we propose a method to predict the maturity date (MD) of winter wheat based on a combination of phenology monitoring method and accumulated temperature. The method is divided into three steps. First, 2-band Enhanced Vegetation Index (EVI2) time series data were generated using the moderate-resolution imaging spectroradiometer (MODIS) reflectance data at 8-day intervals; then, the time series were reconstructed using polynomial fitting and the heading date (HD) of winter wheat was extracted using the maximum method. Secondly, the average cumulative temperature required for winter wheat to go from HD to MD was calculated based on historical phenological data and meteorological data. Finally, the timing of winter wheat HD and the current year’s Meteorological Data were combined to predict winter wheat MD. The method was used to predict the MD of winter wheat in Hebei in 2018 and was validated with data from the phenology station and the Modis Land Cover Dynamics (MCD12Q2) product. The results showed that the coefficient of determination (R 2 ) for predicting MD using this method was 0.48 and 0.74, the root mean square error (RMSE) was 7.03 and 4.91 days, and Bias was 4.93 and −3.59 days, respectively. In summary, the method is capable of predicting winter wheat MD at the regional scale.