Crops show sensitive spectral characteristics according to their species and growth conditions and although frequent observation is required especially in summer, it is difficult to utilize optical satellite images due to the rainy season. To solve this problem, Constrained Cloud-Maximum Normalized difference vegetation index Composite (CC-MNC) algorithm was developed to generate periodic composite images with minimal cloud effect. In this study, using this method, monthly Sentinel-2A/B Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) composite images were produced for paddies and high-latitude cabbage fields from 2019 to 2021. In August 2020, which received 200mm more precipitation than other periods, the effect of clouds, was also significant in MODIS NDVI 16-day composite product. Except for this period, the CC-MNC method was able to reduce the cloud ratio of 45.4% of the original daily image to 14.9%. In the case of rice paddy, there was no significant difference between Sentinel-2A/B and MODIS NDVI values. In addition, it was possible to monitor the rice growth cycle well even with a revisit cycle 5 days. In the case of high-latitude cabbage fields, Sentinel-2A/B showed the short growth cycle of cabbage well, but MODIS showed limitations in spatial resolution. In addition, the CC-MNC method showed that cloud pixels were used for compositing at the harvest time, suggesting that the View Zenith Angle (VZA) threshold needs to be adjusted according to the domestic region.

Keywords: CC-MNC, NDVI, Sentinel-2A/B, cloud-free composite, Crop monitoring