Monitoring of Plant Cultivation Conditions Using Ground Measurements and Satellite Products
Round 1
Reviewer 1 Report
The changes observed all over the world, including Poland, among them in a number of meteorological elements, and especially the increase in the average air temperature, are the reason for the increase in the sensitivity of agricultural production to the changing climate and serious losses in the economy. This paper presents a selected use of meteorological data, products combining ground based data from meteorological radar and satellites, and satellite-based indices to indicate the possibility of a detailed analysis of plant cultivation conditions, especially agricultural drought, on a local scale based on monitoring combining all these sources of information. This manuscript has clear logic and accurate language expression. I think it is a well written manuscript. However, I also have some suggestions for the author's reference. It is also an academic exchange.
(1) Figure 1 lacks the identification of abscissa and ordinate. I suggest the author introduce the diagram in detail and supplement the coordinate description of the diagram.
(2) From L149 to L165, I think the author needs to fit and analyze the trend in Figure 3 again. In terms of structure, I think it is a trend similar to a parabola, reaching the maximum in March and April.
(3) This manuscript discusses data for 2018. This is four years ago. How valuable is the relevant data of this article for our follow-up participation? In addition, this paper only selects one year's data as reference and analysis, whether the data volume and sample size can be increased, to achieve better results.
(4) Has the author considered the mean and variance of one month in consecutive ten years?
Author Response
Responses to the reviewers
Reviewer 1
(1) Figure 1 lacks the identification of abscissa and ordinate. I suggest the author introduce the diagram in detail and supplement the coordinate description of the diagram.
Figure 1 has been supplemented according to the comments.
(2) From L149 to L165, I think the author needs to fit and analyze the trend in Figure 3 again. In terms of structure, I think it is a trend similar to a parabola, reaching the maximum in March and April.
Figure 3 only illustrates the deviation of monthly precipitation totals [in %] in Poland Poland in individual months of 2018 from the mean calculated from years 1971-2000. The differences between the monthly totals in 2018 and the multiannual mean allowed the authors to analyse the precipitation to indicate water excesses and shortages in the following months, while it is not possible to determine a trend based on the presented data. For better clarification of this issue, lines 149-150 have been supplemented with the following text:
The shortage of rains covered almost the entire growing season, except slightly higher rainfall in mid-July and September, resulting in totals slightly above the multiannual mean in these two months, while the entire growing season was exceptionally dry.
Lines 151-165, on the other hand, already belong to a separate paragraph, indicating that the monitoring of meteorological conditions, based primarily on synoptic and telemetry stations, is characterised by limited spatial resolution.
(3) This manuscript discusses data for 2018. This is four years ago. How valuable is the relevant data of this article for our follow-up participation? In addition, this paper only selects one year's data as reference and analysis, whether the data volume and sample size can be increased, to achieve better results.
Agroclimatic monitoring is carried out at IMGW and disseminated in the form of a Bulletin, which is published monthly. In the article we have written, we have presented selected agro-meteorological indicators that we use in the ongoing monitoring of the agro-meteorological situation. We chose the growing season in 2018 because it was characterised by one of the most unfavourable weather conditions for the course of crop vegetation in recent years. At that time, the values of the agro-meteorological indicators showed a significant deviation from the long-term average values, which enabled us to show their properties more clearly in depicting the course of weather conditions. Thus, both the year 2018 and the area of analysis - Wielkopolska - were taken as examples to illustrate the possibilities offered by the indicators we use.
(4) Has the author considered the mean and variance of one month in consecutive ten years?
Unfortunately, the authors did not consider the use of these indices. The focus was mainly on the possibility of using ground and satellite data in parallel for the most complete transfer of information on the current state. However, this is a valuable remark, and we will try to use it in a separate article.
Multi-annual data (10-days averages of different indices) were used on Fig. 8, where the course of anomalies during 2018 in comparison with multi-annual averages was presented.
Author Response File: 
Author Response.docx
Reviewer 2 Report
See attached file
Comments for author File: 
Comments.pdf
Author Response
Reviewer 2
The authors should be able to improve the manuscript and potentially add additional background information and data (e.g. on soils and crop productivity)
The aim of our article was not to characterise the "drought" in 2018 in the Wielkopolska region. Our purpose was to present a selected set of indices we use at IMGW for ongoing monitoring of the agro-meteorological situation. The goal was to show the possibilities offered by the simultaneous use of data from both ground measurement networks and satellite data. Therefore, we did not characterise in detail the soils occurring in Wielkopolska, the amount of yields obtained, or the detailed losses suffered by agriculture in the analysed period.
Please rewrite the abstract section. What is your outcome in this investigation?
Write some numerical values in abstract section.
The summary has been complemented as suggested.
Ground appears in the text on numerous occasions. I propose to change for Soils?
The term "ground" appears in the text only in relation to meteorological observations, i.e. observations of atmospheric conditions, but does not refer to observations of conditions in the soil or on its surface. Therefore, the term "ground" and not "soil" is used.
-Line 99-110 is not neccesary, please reduce extension
The indicated text was reduced by half, leaving only the necessary information explaining to the reader the risk of drought in the analysed region and the selection of an example from the growing season of 2018, which was extremely dry.
Monitoring of current meteorological conditions is highly significant, especially in regions with the largest area and crop production [11]. In the last 20 years, there has been a marked increase in the moisture deficit expressed by a higher incidence of moderately to extremely dry periods, mainly covering the warm half-year, i.e., the growing season [12]. The low and very low values of the Precipitation-Evapotranspiration Index primarily affect these areas, which is quite unfavourable from the point of agriculture be-cause a major part of Polish agricultural potential is concentrated in those regions [13].
In figure 1 it should be indicated if the territory is Poland and what the colors mean
The figure was improved by describing the axes on the map and adding a legend to the colour scale and completing the description under the figure.
Line 128, Why are “Moderately fertile soils (Cambisols and Luvisols)”
The most common soils in Poland are cambisols and luvisols. They cover more than half of the country's area. They are usually formed on boulder clays and loams/silt, and only some cambisols were formed on loess. These soils are mostly classified as moderately fertile soils. The area of the Wielkopolskie Province analysed in this article was within the range of the last glaciation - the North-Polish Glaciation (Vistula Glaciation). The material left by the ice sheet formed a ground moraine, which is built of boulder clays, irregularly mixed with sands. On this substrate, under conditions of a moderate climate and lush vegetation of mixed and coniferous forests, moderately fertile cambisols and luvisols soils were formed. Information on the type of soils and their classification has been prepared based on the literature in Polish, and references to publications have been supplemented in the text.
The discussion is not such a discussion.
- Please compare with some previously publish analysis and your investigation in discussion section
The text of the article has been supplemented with a more extensive "Discussion" chapter containing information on services run by some meteorological services, especially in Europe, in order to indicate what the agrometeo service in Poland brings in this context. Based on examples from the literature and opinions of other authors, it was shown how useful the indices we use are for farmers.
I suggest to write some limitation and recommendation before conclusion section of this investigation.
Information on some limitations and suggestions for recommendation in the text of the "Discussion" chapter has been added.
-It is essential to add a conclusions section
Text summarising the most significant observations made in the article has been added.
Author Response File: Author Response.docx
Round 2
Reviewer 2 Report
I went through the revised version of the manuscript and found that it had considerably improved from the original manuscript. Therefore, the article is suitable for publication in its present form. However, it is worth reviewing some broken sentences that I probably cannot notice since it is a pdf version.
