Data sources
Last updated: 29 September 2026
CropOwl builds each field's profile from open public data produced by reference bodies. We don't alter it: we gather it, date it and relate it to your fields.
Reading the values in the application
- Every value shows its source, the date of the data and when it was last refreshed.
- Values marked Estimate are modelled or declared, not measured on your field.
- If a source doesn't respond, the matching card is marked unavailable, with the last known value and its date; the other cards stay on screen.
- Alerts point out conditions to check on the field; they don't replace agronomic advice. For water restrictions, only the prefectoral decree is authoritative.
Base map
- Data
- Plan IGN and aerial photographs (BD ORTHO®)
- Producer
- IGN, Géoplateforme
- Used for
- The application's map, as a plan or as aerial photos.
- Refreshed
- Loaded directly from the Géoplateforme each time it is displayed.
- Licence
- Open Licence / Etalab 2.0
- Attribution
- “Source: IGN”
Address search
- Data
- The Géoplateforme's geocoding service, based on the national address database (Base Adresse Nationale)
- Producer
- IGN, Géoplateforme
- Used for
- Finding your farm or a town to centre the map.
- Refreshed
- Queried on each search.
- Licence
- Open Licence / Etalab 2.0
- Attribution
- “Source: IGN, Base Adresse Nationale”
Declared parcels and cropsEstimate
- Data
- Land parcel register (RPG), latest published edition
- Producer
- IGN, from the CAP declarations processed by the ASP
- Used for
- The parcels suggested on the map, and the crop pre-filled when a field is created.
- Refreshed
- Yearly edition, published about a year later.
- Limits
- The crop is the one declared in the edition's year, not necessarily this season's: you confirm or correct it when you create the field.
- Licence
- Open Licence / Etalab 2.0
- Attribution
- “Source: IGN — RPG”
Weather
- Data
- Forecasts and observations from the Météo-France AROME and ARPEGE models
- Producer
- Open-Meteo.com
- Used for
- The Weather card (current conditions, 24–48 h forecast), the 7-day water balance (rain, evapotranspiration ET₀) and the weather alerts: frost, extreme heat, strong wind, heavy rain. In the plant protection register, the weather at the time of each treatment, at the field's centre: temperature, humidity and wind at that hour, gusts and rain over the hour before.
- Refreshed
- Every 3 hours at most.
- Licence
- Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 (CC BY 4.0)
- Attribution
- “Weather data by Open-Meteo.com”
Water restrictions
- Data
- Alert zones and prefectoral decrees restricting water use
- Producer
- VigiEau, French Ministry for the Ecological Transition
- Used for
- The Water restrictions card and the restriction alert, depending on the field's zone and water source.
- Refreshed
- Once a day.
- Licence
- Open Licence / Etalab 2.0
- Attribution
- “Source: VigiEau, French Ministry for the Ecological Transition”
Terrain
- Data
- RGE ALTI® digital terrain model
- Producer
- IGN, Géoplateforme
- Used for
- The field's elevation and average slope, and how far its lowest point lies above or below the ground within 500 m, which tells whether cold air settles there.
- Refreshed
- Worked out once per outline, and again if the outline changes.
- Licence
- Open Licence / Etalab 2.0
- Attribution
- “Source: IGN — RGE ALTI”
SoilEstimate
- Data
- SoilGrids: clay, silt and sand content and pH, from 0 to 30 cm
- Producer
- ISRIC — World Soil Information
- Used for
- The Soil card: composition, texture class and pH.
- Refreshed
- Fetched once per field: these estimates rarely change.
- Limits
- Values modelled on a 250 m grid, not measured on the field: a soil analysis remains the reference.
- Licence
- Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 (CC BY 4.0)
- Attribution
- “SoilGrids (ISRIC), CC BY 4.0”
Vegetation
- Data
- Sentinel-2 images (Copernicus programme), processed with the Copernicus Data Space Ecosystem
- Producer
- European Commission and European Space Agency (ESA)
- Used for
- The field's NDVI vegetation index, its 12-month history and the vegetation decline alert. Only cloud-free pixels more than 10 m from the field's edge are kept.
- Refreshed
- New images looked for every day; the satellite passes about every 5 days, cloud permitting.
- Licence
- Copernicus' free, full and open data policy
- Attribution
- “Contains modified Copernicus Sentinel data [year]”
Plant protection products
- Data
- The E-Phy catalogue of plant protection products authorised in France: trade names, authorisation (AMM) numbers, functions and uses
- Producer
- Anses (French Agency for Food, Environmental and Occupational Health & Safety)
- Used for
- Finding a product in the plant protection register, with its AMM number and the usual dose unit of its authorised uses.
- Refreshed
- Once a week, as it is published on data.gouv.fr.
- Licence
- Open Licence / Etalab 2.0
- Attribution
- “Source: Anses — E-Phy”
Report an error
Does a value look wrong for one of your fields? Dismiss the alert concerned and choose “Wrong crop or field data”, or write to us at contact@cropowl.com. We pass confirmed errors on to the data's producer.